Private firm says security bolstered
By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer
Security has been beefed up and other steps are being taken to better safeguard residences since a spike in crime at 1,800 homes of military personnel, the private company that now manages them said.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
The steps follow complaints from some residents that security guards were caught napping in their vehicles, were not patrolling as much as they should be, and are not nearly as vigilant as Navy and Defense Department personnel used to be.
Jeff Reif, a senior chief with Navy Submarine Forces Pacific, has lived in military housing at Halsey Terrace for seven years. He and other residents there are concerned about break-ins since security patrols were privatized. With Reif is his granddaughter Karissa.
Security for the homes, in Halsey Terrace, Radford Terrace, Moanalua Terrace, Hokulani and McGrew Point, was provided by the military until
a private company, Forest City Residential Management, took over their management on
May 1.
Officials said seven homes have been broken into in the last month — several of them while families were sleeping inside.
There have also been seven "smash and grab" car break-ins. Halsey Terrace, with its older jalousie windows, big yards and mature landscaping that offers places for burglars to hide, has been hardest hit.
"It's gotten to the point where it's scaring people," said Lida Atkinson, a Halsey Terrace resident whose husband is a Navy flier in Afghanistan. "It's gotten to the point where the people who are deployed to foreign countries and Afghanistan and Iraq are now concerned enough to contact their commands to deal with this problem. They are worried for their families."
Tom Carter, vice president of military housing for Forest City Residential Management, said yesterday that two security guards patrol homes 24 hours a day, seven days a week, as a backup to the Honolulu Police Department, and that a third security guard has been added at Halsey Terrace.
At a news conference called because of the complaints, Carter said the safety of military residents is the company's No. 1 concern. "We want to make sure they are safe and feel secure in their homes," he said.
Carter said complaints were received that guards with Securitas Security Services, which just won a contract for O'ahu and Big Island airports, were sometimes sleeping in their vehicles, reading newspapers, or parked when they should be patrolling.
"We have since taken measures to ensure that they do stay on the move," Carter said, including putting in card "swipe" stations that guards have to stop at. Securitas did not respond with comment yesterday evening.
Forest City has advised residents how to better safeguard their homes and property. Last weekend, crews secured jalousie windows and checked door locks on 24 homes at the request of residents, Carter said.
The issue also raises the question of the amount of security protection to which military families in increasingly privatized housing are entitled.
Honolulu police officials said education is needed because the Navy no longer runs the property.
According to HPD statistics, during for the period from July 21 to Sept. 21 the number of property crimes at military housing was lower than the neighboring civilian area, bordered by streets including Salt Lake Boulevard, Bougainville Drive and Moanalua Road. In that period, military housing saw 59 property crimes, versus 87 in the nearby civilian area.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
Carter said there may be a false sense of security in tight-knit military communities like Halsey Terrace, where senior Navy enlisted personnel and officers live and where the past Navy response to crime was quick and effective.
Tom Carter, of Forest City Residential Management, says residents of tight-knit military communities may have a false sense of security. "The intrusions that we've had have been through open doors," he said..
"The intrusions that we've had have been through open doors when they weren't locked," he said. "We can't stress enough that they need to make their home as secure as they can themselves by locking their doors, making sure their windows are secured."
Carter said the spike in crime is not necessarily tied to the privatization. All the military services are turning to private property managers as a way to improve housing faster and create more efficiency.
"It (the rise in crime) happened here in just the last couple of months. We've been here since May. The first few months we didn't have quite as much as we have now," Carter said.
He also said such crime "is all over. We're talking to HPD and they are saying they are seeing the same thing everywhere."
Jeff Reif, a Navy senior chief attached to Submarine Force Pacific command who has lived in Halsey Terrace for seven years, said: "Everyone knows now our big security force is gone.
"In the past, there's always been crime — bike stealing, motorcycles stolen. But now we've seen the actual break-ins skyrocketing.
"We know these are older homes. We know that the jalousies are easy to break into. People have been strapping them down, tying them down."
Atkinson, who wants to see a better security company take over, said military families should be entitled to peace of mind particularly in today's war environment with spouses deployed, even if it goes beyond that provided to civilians.
"They are not sending their spouses off to war to be killed," Atkinson said. "I don't mean to be melodramatic. However, there is a difference. ... The military has a long standing tradition of protecting families while (spouses) are away."
A Navy "town hall" meeting is scheduled Thursday to discuss the issue. HPD officers will attend and talk about starting Neighborhood Security Watch groups.
Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5459.
