The percentage of violent crimes that end in an arrest or a closed case is declining, as agencies grapple with understaffing, insufficient technology and geographical challenges of an island state.

For police and prosecutors trying to solve violent crime in Hawaiʻi, the state’s isolation can get in the way.

Crucial evidence has to be shipped to crime labs on Oʻahu or even the mainland, often in a FedEx box that can get lost in the mail. Victims hop on planes and leave the island and there’s only so much prosecutors can do to make witnesses feel safe when the accused shares the same small island.

That’s on top of a lack of resources.

“We don’t have enough detectives. We don’t have enough patrol officers to support those detectives. We don’t have enough crime scene analysts. We don’t hav

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