02-12-2009, 05:25 AM
Lori, I am sorry this happened to you, and I hope your life gets back to normal soon. I first learned of the problem at the hot pond a few weeks ago when Bear and I were on foot patrol wearing our HPP Neighborhood Watch t-shirts. A couple from the next road over stopped to chat with us as people often do. Their keys and ID were taken while they were swimming at Alahanui, and the criminal made off with the car. They reported the same less than inspiring response on the part of the police as you, and they thanked us for our efforts here in HPP.
I guess the issue with the police comes down to two factors. There is the allocation of police resources to lower Puna and then there is the attitude and proficiency of the officers we do have. Many of us here on Punaweb believe that Puna is not getting its fair share of police personnel, equipment, and installations. There is discussion of this on previous threads that I won't repeat here, but I do believe it is true. The attitudinal factors are harder to pin down for obvious reasons. Most reports of poor police attitude are anecdotal, but we seem to hear it a lot. In my own experience, I have noticed a difference when the police feel a personal stake in the immediate neighborhood where they are working.
When we had HPP resident officers assigned as our community policing officers and as patrol officers here, we noticed an immediate difference. These guys are at every Neighborhood Watch meeting, whether it is their duty assignment or not. They helped with our budget for patrol equipment and gave us their personal cell numbers to use when we need help above and beyond what dispatch or 911 can do. Of course HPP is a big population center and every neighborhood won't have police officers who live there. Leadership and oversight of the police are important, and taking things up with the political establishment may the the only way to bring about change. Meanwhile, our HPP community cops have told us something repeatedly and it is, "Keep calling and writing. Report every single incident and keep calling if the investigation is not going anywhere. Calls and letters are cumulatively monitored and will eventually get attention."
Finally, if the residents of the Alahanui are willing to tolerate this, it will be hard to stop it short of a major coordinated police operation, and we don't see many of those.
Not too cheerful about this,
Jerry
I guess the issue with the police comes down to two factors. There is the allocation of police resources to lower Puna and then there is the attitude and proficiency of the officers we do have. Many of us here on Punaweb believe that Puna is not getting its fair share of police personnel, equipment, and installations. There is discussion of this on previous threads that I won't repeat here, but I do believe it is true. The attitudinal factors are harder to pin down for obvious reasons. Most reports of poor police attitude are anecdotal, but we seem to hear it a lot. In my own experience, I have noticed a difference when the police feel a personal stake in the immediate neighborhood where they are working.
When we had HPP resident officers assigned as our community policing officers and as patrol officers here, we noticed an immediate difference. These guys are at every Neighborhood Watch meeting, whether it is their duty assignment or not. They helped with our budget for patrol equipment and gave us their personal cell numbers to use when we need help above and beyond what dispatch or 911 can do. Of course HPP is a big population center and every neighborhood won't have police officers who live there. Leadership and oversight of the police are important, and taking things up with the political establishment may the the only way to bring about change. Meanwhile, our HPP community cops have told us something repeatedly and it is, "Keep calling and writing. Report every single incident and keep calling if the investigation is not going anywhere. Calls and letters are cumulatively monitored and will eventually get attention."
Finally, if the residents of the Alahanui are willing to tolerate this, it will be hard to stop it short of a major coordinated police operation, and we don't see many of those.
Not too cheerful about this,
Jerry