Honolulu police have significantly cut back on the once-common use of undercover agents to infiltrate local gambling operations, saying the investigations took too long and had little long-term impact on illegal cockfighting derbies and underground gambling parlors.

"We did not cease undercover investigations at cockfights; we simply haven't been utilizing this enforcement method as often as previously," said Maj. Kevin Lima, head of HPD's narcotics vice division. "HPD realizes that due to limited human and physical resources in every division and district, commanders must deploy their existing personnel to optimize their potential for success."

Extensive undercover operations usually last six months to a year, Lima said, and with a limited number of officers the detail was running the risk of compromising officers' identities by exposing them to too much of the criminal element. The operations would usually result in the arrest of a few participants for cruelty to animals and gaff prohibitions violations, neither of which are felonies, and they required an officer to actually witness an offense.

"There have been changes in enforcement practices. In the past the Gambling Detail conducted dangerous, labor-intensive investigations that involved the insertion of undercover officers into the cockfights. However, once the gambling detail departed the crime scene cockfighting would resume. The efforts of the detail were viewed merely as an inconvenience," Lima said.

No written changes to the department's enforcement of gambling laws have been made, Lima said, and if the need to conduct extensive undercover work arises in the future, the 10 officers who make up the department's detail will be deployed accordingly.

Currently, the gambling detail finds cockfight locations and sends in uniformed officers to surround the area and serve as a visible deterrent.

Illegal casinos are still subject to short-term undercover operations in which an officer infiltrates a game for an evening or two and gathers enough evidence to make an arrest.

The department also continues to address the large number of complaints received from residents who live near cockfighting events, police said. Those complaints include speeding vehicles, people trespassing on private property, and illegally parked cars.

'A WAITING GAME'

"Many times we will stand by waiting for the cockfighting to start so we can take enforcement action. However, the cockfighters wait for us to leave. It ends up being a waiting game," said Lima. "And though we cannot show a significant increase in arrests or cases we have been more successful in disrupting cockfighting."

Gambling is a petty misdemeanor in Hawai'i and officers had been risking their safety and spending a lot of department time and money on operations that rarely resulted in multiple arrests and almost never ended in a felony prosecution.

Arrests at cockfights and illegal casinos jumped from 58 in 2003 to 152 in 2004. Police in 2004 also seized $254,775 in evidence and cash.

In 2005, police made 80 total arrests and seized $44,596 in evidence and cash.

Last year, police made 81 arrests and seized $12,870 in evidence and cash. Through March police have made six arrests and seized $2,148 in cash.

In addition to police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation also investigates large-scale criminal organizations that profit from gambling and drug distribution.

The most recent high-profile gambling case handled by the FBI resulted in the indictments of five Honolulu police officers and an FBI secretary.

In April 2006, three officers were indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly tipping off leaders of a North Shore cockfighting ring to HPD raids. A fourth officer was indicted for possessing an illegal firearm, and a fifth officer was indicted for hiding evidence of cockfighting.

The FBI investigation began in 2003 with allegations that Charmaine Moniz, a secretary who started working in the Honolulu FBI organized-crime and drug unit in 1999, was tipping off a drug distribution ring. Spinoffs from the investigation led to allegations that Honolulu police officers were protecting illegal cockfights and gambling operations on O'ahu's North Shore.

"We'd prefer the state had better state laws to address this problem," said Robert J. Kauffman, acting special agent in charge of the FBI's Honolulu division. "We look at gambling as part of criminal enterprises because other crimes are usually involved such as drugs, extortion and money laundering. We do have ongoing work in that area and are looking statewide at this problem, not just on this island."

Some see the Police Department's shift away from undercover gambling operations as a prudent preservation of labor and resources.

'AN UNENFORCEABLE LAW'

"The fact that this conduct is a misdemeanor that resists enforcement should be a consideration for those who decided it was illegal in the first place," said Ronald Becker, head of Chaminade University's criminal justice program and a former Texas state trooper. "Legislators should not only decide what interest groups want but whether or not police will use valuable, limited resources to enforce what appears to be an unenforceable law to appease those who are offended by chickens fighting.

"Anybody but the most avid animal lover should recognize there are more important things for the police to be doing. What people want, people will get (prohibition, lotteries, casinos, race tracks). When we legislate morality we can expect a significant portion of the population to make those decisions for themselves despite the legislation."

Reach Peter Boylan at pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com.