We took the plunge this week and bought a safe. In some ways, I don’t like it at all. It’s reflects an admission that the routine security of everyday life is more fragile than we like to admit, and in our neighborhood has been disrupted by the recent string of break-ins.
Not knowing anything about safes, I started with the Yellow Pages and checked with three dealers, narrowing down the selection to what seems like a reasonable compromise between cost, size, and the ability to withstand fire and “attacks” by thieves. I also visited Fisher Hawaii, and looked at several sources online.
And, just fyi, I didn’t consider buying a Costco safe, since getting it home and properly installed would end up being a nightmare, I’m sure.
We decided an AMSEC safe providing some degree of both fire and burglary resistance. We paid a little more for an electronic lock, since I can imagine twirling a combination lock would eventually get frustrating. While only an ultra expensive safe is able to offer total security, most will defeat the average residential burglar, and at least deter even a more sophisticated and better equipped thief. AMSEC seems to be one of the big American manufacturers and distributors, with several different product lines offered by a number of different dealers locally.
After comparing prices, we bought the safe from Senetics, a local company near the Dole Cannery in Iwilei. Mike Sen said his company sells safes and related security products to financial institutions and businesses, but also stocks safes suitable for residential use. The one we chose was available for quick delivery, and the price, while not inexpensive, was reasonably priced compared to the competition. Overall, I would give Senetics a good rating. They had the product in stock, offered a reasonable price, and installed it in a timely and professional manner.
It was promptly delivered to Kaaawa on Friday morning, put in place, and then bolted into the concrete floor. Building its use into our routines will be the key.
Yesterday a friend told me about the neighborhood security system recently installed along their street in upper Manoa, which already has a well organized Neighborhood Security Watch. I believe he said there are 9 outdoor cameras on homes along the street, all accessible via an iPhone app for quick checks. Video is saved to multiple locations. I’ll have to find out more about the cost and how the whole system works.
And I should note one perceptive comment posted by a reader yesterday:
It seems that the community and the department need to come to an agreement on the function of a police department. The community thinks HPD exists to prevent and solve crimes. Some few in HPD (not all!) seem to think their function related to theft is to do documentation for insurance claims.
Perhaps the paperwork required of them is too onerous. Whatever the burdens are on them that seem to make regular police work impossible, let’s get it in the open and rethink.
Maybe they need more funding. One detective told me how many cases he had, and he was one of only two for a huge region. That is a system that is designed to fail, whether intentionally or otherwise.
It is a small miracle with this kind of responsiveness that we haven’t been taken over by crime completely.
We need to get the police and the community together to have shared expectations. The gap between what is said to be their function and reality needs to be closed.
Do you think the neighborhood boards could be a venue to work on this issue?
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One venue for this excellent post and the perceptive comment: the front desk of former prosecutor (and current mayor?) Peter Carlisle, who seems to have taken little initiative so far on crime.
Just because Honolulu has less crime per capita than, say, New York City, this is not a good reason to underfund the Honolulu police department and encourage people to steal from neighbors.
Another venue: the brains of all people who are about to bring children into the world but who have no sense of raising their own kids w/proper (and fair) discipline.
This is a more important venue than Carlisle’s desk. However, since the venue of good parenting has been, well, weakening for some time, Carlisle’s desk also must be one of the venues for stopping thieves.
(The term “weakening” is a nice one here.)
The general public seems to be quite content in demanding no cuts in services but no increase in taxes.
You kinda sorta get what you pay (or don’t pay) for.
It seems that the attitude of HPD has changed pretty significantly in the past 5 years. Prior, if we would call about a community concern (speeding, running through intersections, etc) the police would respond by upping community patrols and getting the behavior to tamper down. But recently (in the past week), there has been a lot of evidence of some hard partying occurring at our neighborhood park (small park in St. Louis Hts). When I’ve taken the dog up there in the morning there are cases of empty beer bottles or empty liquor bottles and vandalism. So this weekend we called HPD to ask if they could just drive by in the early morning to see if anyone is at the park and discourage the activity. And all we got was resistance (you have to call when something is happening. We don’t have the budget/manpower to do drive bys. Yes, we should stop it before it gets worse, but don’t bother us until then). It was aweful. There was no thought to proactive policing at ALL.
I had a meeting with the police head of my district where I live several years ago and was told “criminals are like cockroaches; as soon as you get rid of one, another moves in.” It was a very depressing answer to a major problem we’d had with two drug houses in our neighborhood.
So my neighbors and I joined the Neighborhood Security Watch, got the license numbers and car makes of our neighbors and kept watch. We walked around, biked around and drove around at all times of the day and night and reported anything suspicious to the block captain and/or the police.
It’s been several years since we did this, but our neighbors are still watchful which keeps crime down. We also send out email alerts when crimes have been committed and information is received.
It’s your neighborhood and community. If you don’t care about it, who will?
we had a safe in ka’a’awa; it went missing. hard town, ka’a’awa. kept stuff didn’t want to lose in bank box in town. so far, so good. no need safe.
If anyone wants further information about the neighborhood security watch organization in Manoa, they should checkout the Manoa NSW Blog at http://manoa.homeserver.com/nswblog . One key to the success of NSWs in Manoa is the extensive involvement of our State Representative Isaac Choy in promoting and organizing NSWs. There is a Manoa NSW coordinators and block captains meeting scheduled for June 7 at 6:15pm in Manoa School cafeteria if anyone wants more information. Since this is a dinner meeting, please contact Rep Choy’s office with headcount information.
Jeannine,
I agree with you, but I’m frustrated. *I* cleaned out the storm drain (with asphalt from poorly repaired potholes, no less) after our major rains last month. My family and I cleaned up the park two mornings last week before work. We ARE participating in neighborhood watch and reporting things to the police that are out of the ordinary and should be monitored. And that’s where the frustration lies — we are doing our part in keeping up the neighborhood and when we ask for help from those with true authority, we get resistance and excuses.