A drop in property crimes against visitors in Honolulu can be attributed to stepped-up police and volunteer patrols, better cooperation with the tourist industry and increasing use of security cameras in Waikiki and other tourist areas, officials and industry leaders said this week.

Police said visitor-related car break-ins, burglaries and thefts last year were down by as much as 40 percent since 2002, when almost 2,000 such incidents were reported.

"That's a hell of a good number," said Capt. Jeffrey Richards, the Honolulu Police Department's executive officer for Waikiki. "It's the result of a variety of factors, all of them good."

The biggest change has been in the way police and industry officials work together in Waikiki to deter crime and respond quickly to problem areas, officials said.

Paid employees of the industry-funded Waikiki Business Improvement District, for instance, monitor video surveillance cameras inside the Waikiki police substation, while another employee stands outside to answer questions from visitors on Kalakaua Avenue.

That allows police to spend more time responding to crime and performing other official duties, said Jan Yamane, executive director of the BID, which also funds regular beach and neighborhood patrols that supplement police efforts, she said.

"The city provides the cameras and we provide the personnel," Yamane said.

The six cameras scattered throughout Waikiki deter crimes of opportunity and help police quickly respond to developing trouble, Richards said. The group contracts with the private Aloha Ambassadors, which has 18 employees, to monitor the cameras seven days a week. If the video monitors report a suspicious person or a gathering crowd, they alert police inside the substation, who then dispatch officers to the scene.

Officials also have installed video cameras at two other spots that had a high number of car break-ins and visitor thefts in the past: the Pali Lookout and Ehukai Beach Park on the North Shore, said Rex Johnson, head of the Hawai'i Visitors Bureau.

The cameras were first tested in 2005 and resulted in a significant drop in crime at the two sites in the first six months. Since then, the cameras have remained in place and are monitored by a private security company, Johnson said.

Several visitors interviewed at the Pali Lookout last week said they appreciate the extra security the cameras provide.

"I think they are a great idea. They're practically mandatory in the type of society we have these days," said Deanne Dean, a first-time visitor from Dallas. "It's good to have somebody watching. It pays dividends in the long run."

MASTER PLAN AWAITED

Meanwhile, tourism officials are looking forward to seeing a master plan for visitor security being developed by a private contractor and expected to be presented to the HVB in October. The plan will cover everything from crime to disaster preparedness, Johnson said.

"Once we see that plan, we'll have a better idea of how we want to allocate our resources. I imagine that the security cameras will be at least a part of the recommendations," he said.

Beyond the cameras, Richards and others said a new wave of cooperation between the city and tourism officials has paid big dividends in crime reduction.

Police, for instance, use global positioning systems to prepare weekly maps of all criminal activity in Waikiki, then spread the word to hotels and merchants, who can then be on the lookout for known troublemakers or potentially serious situations.

The hotels and merchants, in turn, have done a much better job of calling police quickly and informing them of upcoming events that might require extra police presence, Richards said.

Paul Gross and Jenna Kerstager, visiting from the small town of Grass Valley, Calif. where "you can still leave your door unlocked," said they were warned many times about being careful on their trip to O'ahu.

"We heard it from our friends, our hotel and the car rental company: Don't leave anything valuable in your car," Kerstager said.

"It's good that security is better," added Gross, who said he had a pair of sandals stolen off Waikiki Beach during one of his previous trips to Honolulu.

"It's really about awareness," Johnson said. "The police presence is a big part of that, the cameras are a part of that, and education of our visitors is a part of it. The hotels are doing a much better job of educating visitors about what to watch out for. It's paying off."

Jim Fulton, executive assistant to prosecuting attorney Peter Carlisle, said the courts also have played a role in bringing down the number of crimes against tourists. Starting in 2002, suspects accused of preying on tourists were arrested and charged more quickly, sometimes before victims had returned home.

The security cameras also have given prosecutors a big advantage in winning more plea bargain agreements with suspects.

"Once they know that they we have them on camera, it's a lot harder for them to claim they didn't do anything," Fulton said.

The drop in crimes against visitors also could be a reflection of what's happening elsewhere in Honolulu.

FBI figures show that property crimes in O'ahu declined from 54,670 in 2002 to 38,221 last year, a 30 percent drop.

Reach Mike Leidemann at mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com.