KIHEI, Maui - Although crime is down in South Maui, Maui County Police Chief Gary Yabuta said that the community has grown so much that the demand for police service there is now greater than in West Maui.
"Kihei has grown to the point where the calls actually exceed Lahaina," Yabuta said during a police town hall meeting Thursday night at the Kihei Community Center.

Through September this year, Yabuta said police received 12,006 calls for service in the Kihei Patrol District, which stretches from the Maalaea side of the pali to Makena. Twenty-one percent of the calls were for noncriminal cases.

In the six months ending Sept. 30, the largest number of calls came from Kalama Park with 173, followed by Kihei Villages with 112, Southpointe with 97 and Kihei Kai Condominiums with 86. The average police response time for emergency and priority calls was six minutes and 26 seconds.

Yabuta said work is proceeding on plans for a permanent Kihei Police Station to accommodate 54 officers who now operate from a crowded storefront next to Foodland.

Seventeen people showed up for the meeting Thursday, which followed similar meetings starting last month in Pukalani, Hana and on Molokai.

In the Kihei district, police statistics showed an overall 4 percent drop in more serious crimes in the year ending in September compared with the previous 12-month period.

For sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, theft and auto theft, the number of reported crimes dropped from 1,049 in October 2007 to September 2008 to 1,007 in October 2008 to last month.

The largest percentage decline was in burglaries, which dropped by 12 percent from 225 to 197. Aggravated assaults decreased from 52 to 48 for an 8 percent decline. Sexual assaults also declined by 8 percent from 13 to 12, while thefts declined by 5 percent from 643 to 612.

The number of robberies was the same at 20 in both years.

Yabuta said he didn't know why there was a 23 percent increase in auto thefts, from 96 to 118, but he said car break-ins had declined.

For other offenses, including simple assault, vandalism and drug offenses, police reported a nearly 8 percent decline from 4,618 in the 2007-08 period to 4,254 in 2008-09. Increases were reported in drug offenses, which rose by 6 percent from 374 to 398, and in drunken driving reports, which climbed by 29 percent from 177 to 229.

"We do see a significant drop in crime, and that's throughout the county," Yabuta said.

He said the exception is suicides and attempted suicides, which have increased as the economy has worsened.

"These are very challenging times," he said. "Yet public service must continue to operate."

During the meeting, residents quizzed police officials on topics including a proposed ban on cell phone use while driving, gang activity and a recent advisory that police not fire Taser stun guns at suspects' chests.

Yabuta said police support the cell phone ban.

While there are gangs in Kihei and throughout the island, Yabuta said gang violence hasn't escalated to levels seen in some Mainland cities. "That first bullet didn't go off yet," he said. "That's what we're trying to prevent."

He said police plan to have a police gang coordinator working the streets and restart a crime reduction unit targeting street crime.

Addressing the "startling" advisory on the use of the stun guns, which are carried by patrol officers throughout the department, Yabuta said police officials would be talking with representatives of the manufacturer, Taser International.

"We have saved lives with the Taser," Yabuta said. "There are so many times that if officers didn't have a Taser, they would have used deadly force."

One woman asked how much a driver can exceed the speed limit without being ticketed, saying other drivers tailgate and pass when she drives the 45-mph speed limit on Mokulele Highway.

Kihei community policing officer Brad Hickle said he wouldn't tell anyone it was OK to drive even 5 or 10 mph above the speed limit. "You could be stopped," he said.

But as he watches for speeders on Mokulele Highway, he's especially looking for excessive speeding, tailgating and lane changing that endanger other drivers.

Earlier this year, he ticketed one driver traveling 112 mph in a 45-mph zone on the highway and recently cited drivers traveling 77 mph and 74 mph.

Hickle said he's not bothered by drivers who flash their lights to signal others that enforcement is under way. "If they're slowing down, problem solved," he said.

Deputy Chief Clayton Tom said police need help from residents, whether it's by providing information about a crime or forming a neighborhood crime watch to deter illegal activity.

Karen Grafe, president of the Haleakala Shores condominium association, said she tells other condominium owners to call police to report suspicious activity. She said she was surprised when, after calling police because people were in nearby Kamaole Beach Park III after the park was closed at 8 p.m., a dispatcher asked whether the people were causing a problem.

Yabuta said that she shouldn't have been asked that.

After the meeting, Grafe said an officer did respond and she doesn't have complaints about police service.

"I get a really good response from the police," she said. "They get there and check it out. I very much respect what the police have been doing."

Grafe said she was sorry more people didn't turn out for the meeting.

"It's helpful for the police to know what our concerns are and for us to understand their limitations," she said.

Kihei resident Netra Halperin said she left the meeting impressed.

"I really got the feeling Chief Yabuta wants to change the reputation of the Maui Police Department because I know the Maui Police Department has not always had the best reputation," she said.

A couple of years ago, when she lived in Haiku, she said police officers responding to an assault said they couldn't arrest anyone, even though a man suffered a broken rib and finger.

"I was very unhappy at that time," she said. "After this, I have the feeling Chief Yabuta wants to actually turn this department around."

Yabuta and Tom will host another town hall meeting from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Lahaina Civic Center. People don't have to live in the Lahaina area to attend.