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Home My WebLink AboutCOM 0021.112 2002-2004 OOON<Y OF Ngw9 Harty Kim I~~' Lawrence K. Mahuna 11m~ar Police Chief o; ,er'~c Harry S. Kubojiri 1lE Of~N~`~ Deputy' Po/ice Chief County of Hawaii March 16, 2004 POLICE DEPARTMENT 349 Kapiolani Stree[ • Hilo, Hawaii 96720-3998 (808) 935-3311 . Faz (808) 961-8869 ~v 0 CJ TO JAf~ES Y. ARAKAKI,;;000NCILCHAlR AND COUNCIL MEI~ERS ~ //}II-- ~ FROM HAI~R~S. KUB J~RI, PUTY POLICE CHIEF = ro ACTING POLICE CHIEF T SUBJECT FINAL REPORT w cn Name of Grant Program: Sex Crimes Unit State Department of the Attorney General Crime Prevention and Justice Assistance Federal or State Grantor: Division County Grantee DepartmenUAgency: County Police Department Grant No.: 02-DB-09 Amount of Grant: $173,888.00 Amount of County Match: $43,347.00 County Revenue & Expenditures Acct 010-201-5219.70 & 3302.45 Grant Period: December 1, 2002 -November 30, 2003 Goals: See attached Objectives: See attached Outcomes: See attached Comm. No. . ( Ref. To; Ref. Date ~ Harry Kim ~c'~~~ Lawrence K Mahana Mayor Police Chief Harry S. Kubojiri ~ Depury Polce Chief ..a'a?'rJ QCnuutp iof ~abuaii POLICE DEPARTMENT 349 Kapiolani Street . Hilo, Hawsii 96720-3998 (808) 935-3311 . Fax (SOS) 961-8869 March 1, 2004 Ms. Lari Koga Administrator Crime Prevention and Justice Assistance Division Department of the Attorney General 425 Queen Street Honolulu, Hawaii 96813 Attn: Ms. Julie Okamoto, Criminal Justice Planning Specialist Dear Ms. Koga: SUBJECT: SEX CRIMES UNIT GRANT, 02-DB-09 Enclosed is the closing progress report for the Sex Crimes Unit for report period December 31, 2002 to November 30, 2003. Should you have any questions, please contact Detective Glenn Uehana of our Juvenile Aid Section at (808) 961-8839. Thank you for your assistance in this matter. Sincere y NCE K. MAHUNA POLICE CHIEF GU:kh Enclosure Department of the Attorney General Crime Prevention and Justice Assistance Division PROGRESS REPORT CLOSING REPORT Project No.: 02-DB-09 Project Title: Sex Crimes Unit Agency: Hawaii Police Department Person Completing Report: Detective Glenn Y. Uehana Phone: (808) 961-8839 Project Period: December 31, 2002 to November 30, 2003 Report Period: December 31, 2002 to November 30, 2003 Date of Report: February 28, 2004 PROJECT DESCRIPTION This project is intended to improve the quality of the Hawaii Police Department's response to reports of sexual assaults perpetrated against adults and juveniles in the County of Hawaii. By design, the project provides for the formation of a "Sex Crimes Unit" (SCU) within the Hawaii Police Department. Personnel assigned to the Unit receive national training. One investigator in Kona and one in Hilo, assigned to the Unit, are placed on "standby" to insure the rapid response to sexual assaults reported after normal duty hours. A. GOALS AND OBJECTIVES 1. "To improve the rate of prosecutable sexual assault investigations submitted to the Prosecutor's Office by l00 over the previous year." The most recent and complete previous semi-annual statistics gathered was in 1998. During the period January through June of 1998, the Hawaii County Police Department investigated 160 sexual assaults, 32 of which were accepted by the Prosecutor's Office as being prosecutable. This is a 20s rate of prosecution. Sex Crimes Unit Progress Report Page 2 For the period of December 30, 2002 to November 30, 2003, the Sex Crimes Unit of the Hawaii County Police Department investigated 323 sexual assaults. Of the cases routed to the Prosecutor's Office during this time period, 42 were accepted as being prosecutable. This is a 13o rate of prosecution. These statistics reflect a 5-~ decrease in prosecutable cases. 2. "All of the detectives in the Sex Crimes Unit will be trained specialists in sexual assault investigations." During this reporting period, sex crimes detectives attended no training because remaining grant funds allow for salaries and stand-by pay only. 3. "TO increase law enforcement training in sex crimes for patrol officers and new recruits." A total of 19 in-service training sessions were held with patrol officers and their supervisors during this reporting period. 4. "To improve the immediate 'after-hour' response of detectives to reported sexual assaults." From December 2002 through November 2003, the Sex Crimes Unit was assigned to a total of 33 sexual assaults reported after hours that required the immediate response of a detective. In all instances, a detective was assigned within five minutes of the lieutenant making the determination that immediate response was in order. Sex Crimes Unit Progress Report Page 3 B. PROJECT ACTIVITIES On January 1, 2000, the Hawaii County Police Department formed a seven member Sex Crimes Unit. Two of these positions have been funded via this project. Since the start of this project, detectives assigned to the Sex Crimes Unit have conducted monthly "In-Service" training sessions with the Patrol Division. A minimum of two sessions is held each month. On January 1, 2003, a 13-year-old female reported being sexually assaulted at a party. A 17-year-old male was apprehended. After a thorough investigation, the case was referred to the Prosecutor's Office. On September 16, 2003, a 25-year-old female reported being accosted sexually by an unknown male party while she was driving her vehicle in her driveway. The assailant also took a digital camera from the front seat. A 50-year-old male was arrested and charged for sexual assault and robbery. On October 30, 2003, a 9-year-old female reported being orally copulated by her grandfather, repeatedly, over a two-year period. The 61-year-old suspect was interviewed and served a notice of expedited sentencing. Before he was able to respond to the expedited sentencing, he was assaulted by unknown parties and is now partially paralyzed. On December 7, 2003, a 12-year-old female reported being sexually assaulted, repeatedly, while she was living in a foster home. The 26-year-old son of the foster parents was interviewed. He is currently awaiting acceptance of an expedited sentencing program. A detective on each side of the island is on standby seven days a week. This is inclusive of weekends and the period after normal working hours during the workweek. [Since the expiration of this grant, there are no stand- by detectives in Area II]. Sex Crimes Unit Progress Report Page 4 C. EVALUATION This project is being evaluated by the success of attaining the following objectives: 1. Improve the rate of prosecutable sexual assault investigations being submitted to the Prosecutor's Office by 10% over the previous year. - Most recent statistics reflect a 5° decrease in the amount of prosecutable cases being submitted to the Prosecutor's Office during this reporting period. The low percentage of prosecutable cases has been problematic because of the unavoidable lag time from the time the Prosecutor's Office receives cases for review to the time these cases are determined to be prosecutable or not. To illustrate this point, during this most recent reporting period, Prosecutor's "Yes/No" form for two cases referred to the Prosecutor's Office on December 9, 1996, were received in June 2003. 2. All of the detectives in the Sex Crimes Unit will be trained specialists in sexual assault investigations. - All seven detectives originally assigned to the SCU have attended national training on the issue of sexual assault investigations. 3. To increase law enforcement training in sex crimes for patrol officers and new recruits. - Members of the SCU conduct a minimum of two training sessions with the patrol division each month. A total of nineteen training sessions were conducted with the patrol division during this reporting period. Sex Crimes Unit Progress Report Page 5 4. To improve the immediate "after-hour" response of detectives to reported sexual assaults. - During this reporting period there were 33 instances whereby a detective needed to be assigned immediately to a sexual assault reported after normal duty hours. In all of these instances, a detective was assigned within five minutes. D. PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED One problem encountered is the inherent delay in response from the Prosecutor's Office relative to the amount of prosecutable cases they receive. This is due to an unavoidable lag time from the time the Prosecutor's Office receives a case for review to the time these cases are determined to be prosecutable or not. Another problem encountered, which also cannot be avoided, are the cases received for investigation during the latter part of the progress report period which are still being investigated. These unavoidable problems make it difficult to determine if the goal "to improve the rate of prosecutable sexual assault investigations submitted to the Prosecutor's Office by 10% over the previous year" is being met during a progress report six month reporting period. It is noted that since the expiration of this grant, the Hawaii County Police Department is currently maintaining the two positions formerly funded by the Sex Crimes Unit grant. Stand-by pay has been budgeted into the East Hawaii Juvenile Aid Section for fiscal year 2004-2005. However, the West Hawaii Juvenile Aid Section has chosen not to maintain the stand-by for a detective to be available 29 hours a day. It is not known at this time how this has affected the JAS Lieutenant's ability to assign a detective in a timely manner. Sex Crimes Unit Progress Report Page 6 At the time this report is being written, the East Hawaii Sex Crimes Unit is short one detective. Likewise, in West Hawaii, one SCU Detective is temporarily acting in the capacity of a Lieutenant due to the recent retirement of that section's commander. Report Submitted By: Glenn Y. Uehana February 28, 2004