The rate at which Honolulu police solved serious violent and property crimes last year was below national averages, the latest figures show.

Honolulu police solved 10.6 percent of major crimes last year, lower than the average national rate of 14.7 percent for cities with populations between 500,000 and 999,000, according to figures provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

A crime is considered solved if there is an arrest or if the offender is known, but for reasons outside the control of law enforcement, the offender cannot be arrested. Examples include suicides, a deathbed confession or denied extradition.

HPD had slightly more success solving crimes in the 1990s than it has so far this decade.

Police solved more than 12 percent of crimes from 1993 to 2001, according to Crime in Hawaii, a report produced each year by the state Attorney General's office. From 2002 to 2006, the rate has been below 10.6 percent.

Last year, Honolulu police solved about 4,351 of the more than 41,000 major crimes reported, the FBI said. Major crime includes murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny theft and car theft.

Honolulu police did not respond to a request for comment on their rate for solving crime.

Criminologists and statisticians say the rates need to be considered in the proper context.

The types of crime and criminals involved, changes in police resources, whether victims report lower-level crimes, or even something as simple as record-keeping could all influence the rates.

For example, police officials in the past have said that property offenses, which usually account for more than 90 percent of the crimes on O'ahu, are harder to solve because often there are no witnesses.

FACTORS FOR DECLINE

Ronald F. Becker, an attorney and former Texas state trooper who is director of the Criminology and Criminal Justice program at Chaminade University, said several factors, including the city's high rate of property crime, are skewing the rate downward.

"Regardless of what we see on TV, taking fingerprints from an auto or in a building that has been burglarized is pretty much a waste of time and primarily for the benefit of the owner," Becker said. "Everyone who is victimized believes they are entitled to a full investigation of the offense. In the real world, some cases will never be solved and some will. The problem is that investigators using the traditional model are saddled with both kinds and expected to make progress on both.

"In truth, if they could weed out the unsolvable and concentrate their time on the solvable, their clearance (solved) rate would skyrocket."

Police have said that the high number of property crimes in Honolulu bring the rate down and that more manpower is needed. But more manpower doesn't necessarily ensure a higher rate of solved crime, statistics show.

STAFFING NOT AN ISSUE

For the past several years, police officials have been battling a shrinking budget and patrol staffing levels that hover at about 80 percent.

But in 1998 when police were solving crimes at the highest rate in the past decade, 16.9 percent, the department employed almost 200 fewer officers than in 2002, when the rate — 8.7 percent — was the lowest since 1975.

Police Chief Boisse P. Correa has targeted property crimes and repeat offenders since taking office in 2004, creating property crime task forces in individual districts and working with prosecutors to bring down chronic criminals.

Police solved 8.6 percent of property crimes and 24.9 percent of violent crimes, according to the department's 2005 annual report, the latest report issued.

According to HPD's annual report, police cleared burglaries at the lowest rate, followed by car theft, larceny theft, robbery, aggravated assault, rape and murders.

Reach Peter Boylan at pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com.