Pubdate: Sun, 25 Dec 2005
Source: Honolulu Star-Bulletin (HI)
Copyright: 2005 Honolulu Star-Bulletin
Contact:  http://www.starbulletin.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/196
Author: Rod Thompson

PAHOA BUSINESSES APPLAUD SECURITY CAMERAS

PAHOA, Hawaii ; South of Hilo, in the center of  business legal and
illegal in lower Puna, Santa isn't  the only one watching to see who's
been naughty and  who's been nice.

A series of federally funded security cameras just went  up in the
heart of Pahoa, protecting legitimate  businesses and driving drug
dealers, boozers and  brawlers out of the area.

Immediate credit goes to the Pahoa Weed and Seed  program, a federal
designation for efforts to weed out  bad elements and seed in business
and social  development. Similar programs are under way in  Chinatown
and Ewa on Oahu.

Pahoa didn't get the $175,000 that sometimes comes with  the
designation, but it did get nearly $70,000 in a  federal law
enforcement Burns grant.

The money paid for setting up a tiny Weed and Seed  office, several
months' salary for coordinator Lon  Brown and "at least eight"
security cameras. Brown  won't say exactly how many, for fear of
giving drug  dealers too much information, but a quick scan suggests 
the true count is about double that.

The cameras are just the latest change around Pahoa,  the center of an
area once famous for drugs, crime and  poverty.

Drug dealing was so centralized that one dealer stood  on the center
line of the only street through town,  stopping cars to sell "ice,"
Brown said.

On Dec. 9, police arrested him and charged him with  offenses related
to crystal methamphetamine, marijuana  and drug paraphernalia, said
Puna District police Capt.  Steven Guillermo. The spot where he stood
is now  covered by several cameras.

Twenty feet away, facing the street, is a low wall  where loiterers
used to sit and drink beer. Prostitutes  used to hang out under
tarpaulins right behind the  wall.

The spot is now covered by the cameras. The  undesirables are gone.
Some might try to go to the back  side of the Akebono Theater, but
that too is covered by  cameras.

Madie Green, who runs Pahoa Puna Buy & Sell, is  "ecstatic" about the
cameras. Teenagers used to skip  school, sit on the rock wall and get
into fights for no  apparent reason, she said. Now they're gone.

Capt. Guillermo says the law allows people found  drinking in the area
to be banned for a year. "I can  see the difference in the town
already," he said.

Some people ask if the cameras just send troublemakers  to another
area. Brown responds that criminals, like  most people, like having a
stable base of operations.  Keeping them on the move keeps them
unstable, and they  make mistakes that lead to their downfall.

The cameras operate like the ones in a bank, meaning  they aren't
watched all the time, but if something  happens, they can be played
back for evidence.

The images they capture go into a Web site not open to  the public but
available to law enforcement far afield,  such as the U.S. Attorney's
Office in Honolulu.

The Weed and Seed geographic area actually extends  upland to Kaohe
homesteads, an area of 30- and 40-acre  lots where poachers with
night-vision goggles and  camouflage clothing hike through private
property at  night, shooting at pigs at 3 a.m. and scaring  residents.

Kaohe has no paved roads, no electric power lines, no  telephone
lines. But it now has a Community and Farm  Watch, which notes
vehicles driving through the area,  even at 3 a.m. Police put out the
word, "If you get  caught (hunting illegally) up there, we're going to
 take your weapons," Brown said.

Hawaiian Beaches and neighboring Hawaiian Shores, on  the makai side
of Pahoa, have all of the touches of  civilization that Kaohe doesn't,
like pavement and  power.

But it also had neglect and decay, until Fred Blas  moved in. After
spending his teenage years on Oahu,  Blas moved to the mainland, owned
seven tire stores  during 40 years, then retired to Hawaiian Shores
with  too much energy to sit still.

Now 58, he cleaned up a county park overgrown with  weeds, got friends
to paint park buildings, moved to  another vacant county property
covered with weeds and  beer bottles, cleaned that up, and created a
second  park.

"This place used to be a heavy, heavy drug place," he  said. Now he
tells kids on the verge of trouble, "Look,  I don't want you to go to
jail now."

A one-man Weed and Seed program, Blas seeds parks, a  sheltered bus
stop for kids and anti-drug signs  everywhere.

Back in the village, Thai, Italian, Mexican and  Filipino restaurants,
as well as the Boogie Woogie  Pizza parlor, are creating a new
reputation for Pahoa.  "It's a great place to go to eat," said Deputy 
Prosecutor Mitch Roth, who obtained grants for the Weed  and Seed
program. Roth also sees a reputation for arts  and crafts stores building.

And people who park and walk to the stores and  restaurants can do so
with confidence, because those  cameras are watching their cars.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin