A reported sexual assault of an 11-year-old girl in Beretania Community Park last week has brought attention to park safety, with some asking how to make parks safer for children.

"The city should try to do whatever we can to make our parks safer," said City Councilman Charles Djou. "We've looked at closing the parks during evening hours, but that would not have been at the time that this girl was raped."

Djou said better lighting, increased police presence and reduced park hours may all have to be considered to keep a better watch on children using the city's 293 parks.

"The approach we should be taking is listening to the Hono-lulu Police Department," he said. "We simply do not have enough police to put an officer in every single park throughout the city every hour of every day."

But police do not see this case as an escalation of crime in parks or a reason to change police procedures.

Police Capt. Frank Fujii said parks are are not high-crime areas, but that crime can happen suddenly anywhere.

"Parks are not more dangerous than anyplace else," he said. "If somebody comes in with a gun, then it isn't safe. That could be anywhere: a park, a shopping center or a home."

After talking to police commanders across the island, Fujii said the predominant concern of police about parks is drinking alcohol rather then more serious crimes. Statistics on crimes in parks are not readily available, he said.

Visitor Kelly Lee of California took her two children, ages 6 and 4, to Ala Moana Beach Park yesterday. Lee, who is visiting her in-laws over the holidays, said she had read about the rape case but was not worried about her children's safety at the beach park.

"The bottom line is parents have to keep a watch over their children," Lee said. "The reason we come here is my mother-in-law swims, and for the kids, it is a nice beach."

Date Street resident Skip Lambert also swims laps at Ala Moana but does have some safety concerns about the park.

"The problem with this park is the amount of homeless," Lambert said. "They have no other place to go, but some of them are really strange. I've seen naked people walking around shouting.

"I feel perfectly safe here during the day, but I wouldn't use this park after dark, simply because I don't believe in tempting the hand of fate."

Lambert said the park where the rape took place is in a "poor section of town," and if city officials create new restrictive rules for parks, the approach should not be one size fits all.

"I would say any changes should be on a park-by-park basis, not a blanket change," he said.

Fujii said when parks are closed at night, crime is reduced, but park hours are a community concern and should be determined with the help of area residents.

Lynne Matusow, chairwoman of the Downtown Neighborhood Board, said closing the Smith/ Beretania Park at night has prevented crime, but that larger parks, such as Ala Moana or Kapi'olani, should be open 24 hours.

"People need to be able to use their parks," Matusow said. "If you have a regional park that is not near housing, and the noise level isn't going to affect anybody, they should be able to play tennis at night."

Matusow said people need to take ownership of their neighborhood parks and call 911 if they see something suspicious.

"This (Beretania park incident) is something that I don't think the police could have stopped unless somebody called them," she said. "People need to call 911 if they see something. People just won't call."

Jasmine Mau-Mukai, director of the Children's Justice Center, said a sexual assault in a public park is unusual.

"Our experience is generally the assaults are not occurring in parks," Mau-Mukai said. "They normally occur in people's homes or places with privacy, where the secret is perpetuated."

The Children's Justice Center is a program of the state judiciary set up to handle cases of sexually abused children.

There were more than 1,000 reports of sexual abuse of children last year, she said, and about half were confirmed.

Of those 1,000 cases, 726 suspected assailants were adults and 261 were juveniles.

"Sexual assault of children is a huge problem in our state," Mau-Mukai said. "There are many, many more cases unreported."

The victim in the recent incident can recover from the crime with time and treatment, she said.

"Many victims have problems sleeping, or depression, but I think this child has a good prognosis," she said. "She has come forward, talked to the police, and the juveniles were arrested. That will help her heal."