The increasing use of video surveillance in Honolulu led a group of alleged toy thieves to turn themselves in over the holidays, saw the return of a stolen Christmas wreath, exonerated a man accused of murder in January and led the Honolulu prosecutor’s office in February to reduce charges in a high-profile manslaughter case.
While videotape surveillance helps police track down suspects, “video also helps us make decisions on how to proceed,” city Prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro said.
The sale of video surveillance systems is on the rise, boosted by homeowners and businesses — big and small — as a way to deter crime and provide evidence for possible prosecution.
The market has become so lucrative that mainland-based security companies are moving into Honolulu and going door to door soliciting new customers, said Asa Ikeda, one of the owners of Cam Security Store. It’s one of the few remaining locally owned and operated video surveillance and alarm companies on Oahu, he said.
“Despite the down economy, there’s still a need for security,” Ikeda said. “If crime goes up, in our industry so does our business.”
The number of surveillance cameras installed in Oahu homes and businesses isn’t readily available. But systems are in place along highways, at ATM machines, in stores and even throughout the state Capitol, where it was reported Wednesday that nine of 64 cameras are broken. State sheriff’s deputies use them to track protests and rallies, deter vagrants and monitor the halls and entrances — recording activity 24 hours a day.
The City and County of Honolulu maintains more than 200 traffic management cameras across Oahu — in addition to about 30 cameras throughout Chinatown focused on deterring crime, said Gordon Bruce, director of the city Department of Information Technology and its chief information officer.
In Waikiki, six anti-crime cameras along Kalakaua Avenue were augmented with four more in November for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii opposed the use of video surveillance during APEC, saying it would “ultimately change the core experience of going out in public — and effectively turn our Aloha State into a police state — without making us any safer. … These surveillance systems are also expensive, and they are far less effective than proven techniques like improving lighting, increasing foot patrols, and establishing community watch programs.”
Cameras are not only more prevalent in public and private areas throughout Waikiki, but these days they’re also much more sophisticated, said Jerry Dolak, president of the Hawaii Hotel Visitor Industry Security Association and director of security and safety at Outrigger Hotels Hawaii.
“The resolution is better, and they have day and night capability,” Dolak said. “These ‘smart cameras’ can track movements, such as if a person in a parking lot zigzags from car to car, and can then actually alert the (person monitoring the video) to the movement.”
Smart cameras mounted in hotel lobbies are focused on paintings and sculptures and will alert a human if an object is moved, Dolak said.
“We even watched a woman pour water from a Ziploc bag and then slip and fall in it, claiming she was hurt,” he said. “It’s one of the best investments you can make.”
Images captured by a camera installed by a Waikiki concession stand changed the course of the prosecution of a 39-year-old man arrested on Kalakaua Avenue on Jan. 22 for investigation of second-degree murder.
Police arrested the man after witnesses said he stabbed a 20-year-old Kaneohe man to death in Waikiki during a confrontation over a stolen bag at about 2:25 a.m.
Witnesses told officers that the 39-year-old man stabbed the younger man. But video footage exonerated the original suspect.
“The camera recorded that the so-called victims — the guys who stole the stuff and their girlfriends — misidentified who did the stabbing,” Kaneshiro said. “As a result, the police arrested the wrong person. The video goes to the credibility of the so-called victims. No charges were brought.”
Another suspect was later arrested but no charges have been filed.
And last month, prosecutors reduced manslaughter charges against Albert Birmingham after viewing video footage.
Birmingham ran over and killed 20-year-old Raelynn Adams on Jan. 31, 2010, during an argument in the drive-thru lane of the Nanakuli McDonald’s. A McDonald’s video camera captured images of “two guys coming out of a car with baseball bats approaching the defendant’s car,” Kaneshiro said. “The defendant fled and he hit the girl, and the girl died probably because these guys were going to beat him up.”
Charges were reduced to negligent homicide. “Not that we condone a death, but that’s what was caught by the cameras,” Kaneshiro said. “It goes to the state of mind of the defendant — that he’s so afraid he’s not thinking about who’s in front of his car. That’s why it was reckless.”
Birmingham, a 38-year-old with two prior drunken-driving arrests, also pleaded guilty to fleeing the scene of a fatal accident, consuming or possessing alcohol while operating a vehicle and driving after his license had been revoked for DUI.
Under the terms of his plea agreement, Birmingham faces a prison term of no more than 10 years when he is sentenced in April.
Over the holidays, surveillance cameras captured a group of alleged thieves walking out of the Windward Mall Toys R Us with armsful of toys. Some of the suspects later turned themselves in, but the case remains open and no charges have been filed.
A private camera in a Kapahulu elevator around the same time captured the so-called “Auntie the Wreath Bandit” brazenly stealing a Christmas wreath in a video later posted on YouTube. After the video went viral, the wreath mysteriously reappeared Christmas evening along with a note that read, “I’am (sic) sorry that it was taken.”
As a young deputy prosecutor in the late 1970s, Kaneshiro successfully introduced video surveillance into evidence for the first time in Circuit Court as part of the Honolulu Police Department’s Operation Hukilau, which involved undercover officers operating a bogus storefront business buying stolen goods.
Video cameras captured suspects confessing to undercover officers about stealing items they were trying to resell to police, Kaneshiro said.
“They were admitting on camera what they did and even identified what houses they broke into,” Kaneshiro said. “Once we got it into evidence, a lot of the defendants pled. When you get video documentation, it has more impact than just someone testifying.”
Before he was re-elected city prosecutor, Kaneshiro ran a security consulting business in the mid-2000s and often recommended video surveillance to clients as a way to both deter crime and help police track down criminals.
Following a rash of eight burglaries in two weeks at Century Center on the edge of Waikiki, Kaneshiro videotaped the people entering the condominium and commercial building after the elevators shut down at 10 p.m. to nonresidents, who would then have to be escorted up.
“The lobby was full of people the owners did not expect — a lot of nightclub people, a lot of strippers, a lot of druggies. Some had warrants for their arrest,” Kaneshiro said. “Out of 296 units, 80 percent of the visitors were going to four units. One unit was owned by a drug dealer. One unit was rented by a drug dealer.
“When I showed the board of directors the video of the kind of people that were coming in while they were sleeping, they were shocked,” Kaneshiro said.
While homeowners and small-business owners can spend as little as $300 for a basic, one-camera system and memory storage, Michael Miske — chief executive officer of The Standard nightclub at Waterfront Plaza in Kakaako — just spent $25,000 on a sophisticated system of 24 mounted surveillance cameras.
The cameras cover 7,500 square feet of space, including the kitchen, three bars, entrances and 12 point-of-sale systems.
“If a bartender rings up one Heineken, we’ll literally see that she’s typing in ‘1 Heineken,’” Miske said. “But if the video shows that she’s actually passing five Heinekens over the bar, then it’s pretty obvious she’s stealing. It’s like instant integrity.”
