SPOUSE ABUSE:

‘Murder
in the making’

Despite new attitudes
toward an old crime, the numbers
still cause concern

By Richard Borreca
Star-Bulletin

Police Chief Michael Nakamura says, "We are in the people business," so Honolulu's police force must be ready to handle the social problems of spouse abuse and domestic violence.

"We have trained all our beat officers on the problems and the cycles of violence within an abuse case," he explained during a recent interview.

That's not the way it used to be, Nakamura said.

Police would arrive at the scene of a violent family fight and simply separate the combatants.

"We would send out a patrol car ... make everybody act goody goody and then leave. It wasn't even written up," he said.

Now, Nakamura stresses ways of stopping violence in the home.

"The victims of domestic violence is not just the woman, but also the child who sees his or her mother getting beat up, because that child may grow up to be either a victim or an abuser," he said.

Peter Carlisle, city prosecutor, is equally as concerned and ready to come down on the perpetuators of domestic violence.

"We look at spouse abuse as a murder in the making," he said. "The numbers are absolutely horrible."

Although domestic violence experts say it is a crime that crosses economic and demographic boundaries, police data show that certain areas of Oahu have significantly more domestic abuse cases reported.

The specific report, according to police record-keeping methods, is called "offense against a family member." If the fight is so serious that there are significant injuries, the charge may be aggravated assault, but generally domestic violence is logged in as a "family offense."

In Waipahu, there were 116 family offense cases in the 10-month study period, from August 1996 to May of this year.

Police officer Daniel Lastimoso, a five-year HPD veteran who has spent most of his time patrolling the Waipahu area, has been called to the scene of many abuse cases.

"Unfortunately, I see a lot of it," he said.

"Once we go to the scene and talk to them, we have the tools to provide counseling -- but only if they want it," he says. "If they want help further than ours, we can help them get it."

But he warns, no one is going back to the old days.

"Once we see injuries and determine who is the aggressor, we have to make an arrest.

"If there is a history of abuse, we go to the house and tell person to leave and not come back until the next day," he said.

Domestic abuse is so traumatic a crime and event that police keep records of areas they watch for problems.

They watch internal reports for areas with numerous calls to police. When no crime can be charged, police log the call as a "miscellaneous public." When they go to a house on a domestic violence case and see that it already has had several "miscellaneous public" calls, they know it is serious.

"The pattern is once it starts, it isn't going to stop until you do something about it," Lastimoso said.

The police also have a domestic abuse response team, Nakamura said. A police officer and a social worker will follow up by visiting an abuse victim.

Also, if the victim goes to court for a temporary restraining order forcing the abuser to stay away, then police are alert for reports of restraining order violations.

"Our new policy is the police will now arrest TRO violators," Nakamura said.

Police officers say the most frustrating part of the job is getting abused family members to press charges.

"The people who are victimized have to come forward," Hannemann said.

Getting them to do so is difficult, however, Lastimoso points out.

"We try to help these people and explain they aren't weak when they call the police. You aren't losing face or shaming the family," he said.

"We can give counseling and we try our best. But whether they take our help or not is up to them."

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