State of Hawai'i County 2005 Year in Review/2006 Looking Forward

Home

State of the County 2005 - The Year in Review 2006 - Looking Forward: Projects and Issues Police Lawrence Mahuna, Police Chief In 2005, the Police Department implemented a modern integrated Records Management System that will enhance public safety by making more timely, accurate, and complete information available to police personnel; increase productivity by reducing/eliminating redundant or unnecessary tasks; improve management and public policy decision making by increasing the ability to analyze law enforcement data; and protect the rights of people and the interest of the County with a proper security of confidential information. This has been the first phase of enhancing our department technologically, and future projects include the wireless application of the system for use by our officers in the field. The Department continued our emphasis on enforcement efforts to target the distribution and use of Crystal Methamphetamine (ICE), through our ICE Task Force and Drug Interdiction Units. The primary goal of these units has been to identify, dismantle, disrupt, arrest, and prosecute street, mid and upper level drug trafficking organizations and organized crime groups involved in methamphetamine distribution, methamphetamine manufacturing, and money laundering. Our efforts thus far have disrupted the activities of several organizations in the County of Hawaii and have led other organizations to alter their operations. Feedback from community groups indicates that enforcement efforts mitigated their concern of blatant drug activity occurring in their neighborhood. In addition, during 2005, we finalized an agreement with the Hawaii Community Foundation to continue grant funding for the ICE Task Force and Drug Interdiction Units. This has resulted in the current positions being grant funded through June 2006, after which the positions will be funded by the County to continue our enforcement efforts. During 2005, collaborative efforts between our Department and participating HIDTA partners (Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and the U.S. Attorney's Office) successfully disrupted several large organizations directly responsible for the importation and distribution of large quantities of crystal methamphetamine here in Hawaii County. Seizures included: 23.92 pounds of crystal methamphetamine, whose street value exceed $1,000,000; 43.8 grams of cocaine; 31 firearms; $429,471 U.S. currency seized for forfeiture; 39 arrests (12 indicted federally) and 44 search warrants. Future projects for the department include our new microwave system that will become a reality in October 2006. This new system will vastly improve the communication infrastructure and lead into the next phase, which will address the improvement of mobile radio coverage and interoperability among the county agencies and others.