In all, there were 2,507 violent crimes reported in Honolulu last year, compared with 2,606 in 2003. The 44,121 property crimes reported last year was well below the 48,306 reported in 2003.

Violent crimes include rape, robbery, aggravated assault and homicides, which are classified as murder or manslaughter. Property crimes include burglary, larceny/theft and car theft.

The number of murders and arsons were the only categories that increased here, with the number of deliberately set fires climbing from 389 in 2003 to 427 last year, and murders jumping from 15 to 26.

The decrease in property crimes is particularly noteworthy given that Hawai'i led the nation in the rate of thefts in 2002. To combat the problem, Honolulu police buckled down, hired more officers and pushed for increased community vigilance, which seemed to have made a difference in the 2003 statistics. That turnaround came after years of steady increases.

The local crime numbers for O'ahu this year reflect a national trend of decreasing violent crime.

Nationwide, the number of murders fell last year for the first time since 1999, part of a decline in all types of violent crime.

Cities with more than 1 million people had the greatest decrease in violent crime, 5.4 percent, while cities under 10,000 saw the greatest decrease in murder, 12.2 percent.

The city led the nation in homicides in two of the three previous years, so leaders there launched a law-enforcement effort that drove down the number of murders from 598 in 2003 to 448 last year.

Criminal justice experts say the decline in violent crime at the national level was something of a surprise because gang-related activity is increasing in some parts of the country, the economy is sputtering in some areas, the number of at-risk youth is rising and law-enforcement budgets are experiencing cuts.

"At this point, even slight improvements are very good news," Northeastern University criminal justice professor James Alan Fox said.

Alfred Blumstein, a criminal justice expert at the Heinz School at Carnegie-Mellon University, said, "It's nice that it dropped, but the drops were by no means universal." Murders in the western part of the country rose 0.4 percent, and violent crime rose in some smaller- and medium-size cities.

With more than 12,700 law-enforcement agencies reporting, the FBI's preliminary data shows the number of violent crimes decreased 1.7 percent in 2004 compared to 2003, and property crime fell 1.8 percent.

All of the nation's regions showed decreases in violent crime, with the Northeast dropping the most (2.6 percent), followed by the West (2 percent), Midwest (1.5 percent) and South (1.2 percent).

Property crime was down in three of four regions and declined in cities of all sizes: The drops were 3.5 percent in the Midwest, 2.5 percent in the Northeast and 2 percent in the South. The decline in the West was less than 0.1 percent.

There were some increases. Cities with populations of 250,000 to 500,000 registered a 1.3 percent increase in violent crime, and in cities of 25,000 to 50,000, the rise was 1.1 percent. Cities of 25,000 to 50,000 showed a 1.7 percent increase in murders, and those with populations of 10,000 to 25,000 showed a 0.8 percent increase.