2024-03-08 Police Commission Regular Minutes

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Hawaii Police Commission Regular Session Minutes March 8, 2024 Page 3 where a case was initiated and 7,267 miscellaneous public assistance calls (these are not criminal cases). Chair Robinson stated that he knows people just leave the keys in their car but was curious as to where the cars are taken and if they just get chopped up. Major Amaral said many times these vehicles are dumped on the side of the road or on vacant property where people will start taking parts off the car and sell it. A lot of cars are actually located after they're dumped in vacant areas. Many of these thefts occur because people don't lock their doors or leave the keys in the car and you can't do that anymore. Commissioner Quartararo related that someone he knows reported that they walked in to their two-story house, noticed that somebody started living in there, and before they could do anything the person left. The next night they woke up and saw a light on the first floor. He asked where would something like that be reported. Major Amaral said it really depends if the person actually owns the home, if they're not always at the home, or it's a rental. It could be construed as a burglary. If the house has been sitting for a year for sale and no one's been there, it could be construed as trespass depending on who has rights to that property. A lot of times we have bank foreclosures where people go in and squat on the property until the bank does something to remove them. If it is your home or vacation rental, it comes under burglary. If not it will come under trespass, which isn't listed on this report, and most likely will be reported under a miscellaneous public assistance type call where they will make contact with someone, advise them, and it will turn into a civil matter where sheriffs will legally evict somebody off the property. • Traffic Report: Acting Major Evangelista reported that as of March 5, 2024, for this fiscal year there were 563 traffic crashes compared to 618 last year, which is a big decrease. There were 12 traffic fatalities compared to 9 last year so we're experiencing an increase. There were 4 DUI fatalities compared to 7 last year, a significant decrease. DUI arrests stand at 627 compared to 630 last fiscal year, about a status quo. For the month of February 2024, there were 5,268 citations issued: 3,721 for moving/regulatory, 365 for seat belt, 29 for child restraint, and 1,153 for speeding. Commissioner Quartararo inquired if there are charts available to show where traffic crashes and fatalities are occurring for the purpose of determining whether or not we have intersections that are more dangerous than others. Acting Major Evangelista stated that they do have a chart at the bottom of the page that is a district by district breakdown; however, it does not go into specific intersections although that data can be produced if needed. Commissioner Bertsch asked if the Traffic Enforcement Unit has a hypothesis as to why the fatality rate is spiking. Acting Major Evangelista related that most of their fatalities involve speed and impairment, and it's something they're constantly battling.