Overall crime is down statewide, but suspects in car thefts and burglaries are more likely to get away with it on Oʻahu than on the neighbor islands.

That’s according to a newly launched dashboard from the Hawaiʻi Attorney General’s Office. The dashboard, which covers four years beginning in 2021, is aimed at providing a uniform picture of crime across the state — along with a clear breakdown of how often cops are able to crack the case.

The new interface is in beta mode, meaning officials are still working out the kinks and things could change as improvements are made.

Crime Down On Oʻahu, But Neighbor Islands Struggle

The state’s crime rate declined by almost 17%, from 75,399 incidents in 2021 to 63,030 in 2024, according to the dashboard. But that was largely driven by a decrease in offenses reported in the City and County of Honolulu. Authorities on Oʻahu reported about 37,700 offenses in 2024, a decrease of about 27%.

On the neighbor islands, the picture wasn’t so positive. Kauaʻi also saw a minor decrease. But on the Big Island and Maui, the number of offenses went up in 2024 compared to the year before.

While clearance rates improved on Oʻahu, those metrics actually decreased in Maui, Hawaiʻi and Kauaʻi counties. A case is considered cleared when a suspect is arrested or the case is otherwise closed due to other factors like the death of an offender or a lack of cooperation by the victim.

Police reported 31 homicides statewide last year, down from a high of 40 in 2022. But police only had a clearance rate of 48%, a substantial drop from 85% in 2022.

Kauaʻi had a particularly tough time solving rape and kidnapping cases, according to the state attorney general’s data. Last year, officials reported 212 kidnappings and 59 rape cases. But the police department’s low overall clearance rate for those crimes — 13% and 10%, respectively — means that only a fraction of such cases were solved. Those numbers are lower than other islands. On the Big Island, for example, the clearance rate last year was 28.2% for kidnappings and 27% for rape cases. In Maui County, the clearance rate was 20.8% for kidnappings and 13.8% for rape cases.

Stolen car? The Island Matters

Thousands of cars are stolen each year on Oʻahu. Less than 3% of cases are solved. While the number of car thefts on the island has gone down from about 5,000 in 2021, the number of cases cleared has remained stubbornly low. In 2024, there were 3,596 motor vehicle thefts in the county. Police solved just 83 cases that year.

Compare that to Maui, which had the second-highest number of car thefts in the state. Almost 15% of cases were cleared last year — substantially higher than on Oʻahu, though not as good as Maui’s record in 2022 when it peaked with a clearance rate of more than 24%.

The number of burglaries authorities solve also differs from island to island. Oʻahu had 1,624 burglaries last year, but the police department’s clearance rate was just 7%. The Big Island had about a third as many burglary cases, but a clearance rate of about 17%. Kauaʻi, which had the lowest number of burglaries last year at 212, had the highest clearance rate for these cases at just over 20%.

“Data Dive” is supported in part by the Will J. Reid Foundation.