ICE WARS: POLICE STILL OUTNUMBERED

In the last year, Big Island police have gained federal allies in the war on
"ice," or crystal methamphetamine. But in daily battles against drug
trafficking, police are outnumbered and overworked.

"This year, we've taken down four big ones (dealers)," said Marshall
Kanehailua, acting lieutenant in charge of the Police Department's two vice
squads. "But every time we hit one, another pops up."

Money motivates new dealers to fill the void, Kanehailua said. On a busy
night, the average Big Island dealer can sell between $7,000 and $8,000 of
ice to about 45 addicts. About half the nightly take is profit, he said.

Arresting dealers is not as easy as walking into a suspected "ice house,"
slapping on handcuffs and taking them to prison, however.

"Unlike marijuana eradication when people know when we fly (in a
helicopter), with crystal meth we have to have 'probable cause' to get a
search warrant to enter a house (where ice is being sold)," Kanehailua said.
"Unless I have probable cause or a reliable source like a purchase (of ice)
in the house, I've got zero and we will not get a search warrant from the
judge.

"Even though I've written hundreds of affidavits (affirming evidence
necessary to secure a search warrant) and have executed maybe 200 search
warrants, it's not enough for me to believe that drugs are being sold at a
house."

In the first eight months of 2002, county vice officers took 944 grams from
the streets, completed 193 cases involving ice and made 95 arrests. The
county's 16 vice officers also handled 56 cases of crack cocaine, 467
marijuana cases and eight heroin cases.

Islandwide, vice squads work about 200 drug cases each month. About one day
per month is spent on marijuana eradication. Aside from the required night
and weekend duty when drug sales peak, the vice squads also cover
traditional vice beats.

"Ninety percent of our time is spent on crystal meth," Kanehailua said. "But
we also cover prostitution, gambling, cockfighting, marijuana eradication,
heroin, cocaine and crack cocaine."

The workload taxes officers, he said. "We're human beings, too. We have
families we don't see, things we can't do like baseball games with our kids
(because of our work)."

The drug beat is a personal battle for officers like Kanehailua.

"I went to school with some of these guys, lived next to an addict," he
said. "We know who they are, they know who we are."

By targeting traffickers, and not users, vice officers can "cut the vein
that feeds the addicts," Kanehailua said.

"We take a pound (of ice) off the streets, and that creates a drought. For a
period afterward, we've poisoned the group (of dealers) and they don't know
who to trust. So you then have a few months to build another case," he said.

A review of police logbooks for October and the first three weeks of
November showed 49 vice cases involving ice. Nearly all were for amounts of
0.2 to 0.4 grams - with no arrests reported.

Many of those cases were for controlled buys with confidential informants or
undercover officers, said Capt. James Day.

"These investigations take a long time," Day said, citing the months - long
investigations that resulted in the recent seizures in California of 10
kilos of cocaine and several pounds of ice destined for the Big Island.

The federal Drug Enforcement Administration has deputized two county vice
officers, and assigned additional agents to the state with a mandate to
target ice traffickers. Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms, U.S. Customs, and the FBI also work on undercover operations with
isle police.

These investigations can last a year or more, agents said. The combined
efforts have increased the reach of law enforcement from Hawaii to Mexico
and California ­ where "superlabs" produce up to five tons of ice a month
with a significant percentage destined for the islands.

The U.S. Attorney General's office for Hawaii has taken at least 10 felons
and drug dealers caught with firearms off Big Island streets.

Police and prosecutors also are hampered by computer systems incapable of
processing arrest and court records into detailed reports on drug
interdiction and prosecution.

"Data on the number of prosecutions that involved ice? It doesn't exist,"
said Nancy Kelly, business manager of the county prosecutor's office.

The prosecutor's office computer - system predates the 1981 Wang system used
by the Police Department, Kelly said.

The only detailed records of the vice squad work are maintained by
Kanehailua. Each vice officer must report every 30 days on progress, or lack
thereof, in drug investigations. The records are necessary proof to federal
agencies that granted $700,000 this year to Hawaii County for anti - drug
operations.

The grant money cannot be used to hire additional officers, Kanehailua said.

"There's no way we can focus 100 percent on ice" with the current vice
staff, he said.

"When we go to conferences and tell others we don't have a unit, they
laugh," he said. "But then when we give a presentation and they see what
we've done with what we've got, the word gets out you don't want to follow
Hawaii County's vice presentation.

"If we had eight officers dedicated strictly to narcotics, we could really
go after the dealers," he said.