The increased police presence in Chinatown has helped allay safety fears, but it's also resulted in big increases in the number of citations issued to drivers and some are starting to ask whether the number of officers patrolling the area should be drawn back.

"It's a fine line," said Frank Lavoie, chairman of the Downtown Neighborhood Board, who has been fielding complaints from residents and merchants about the surge in citations. Lavoie said he believes the number of officers patrolling Chinatown at night should stay the same, but he supports a reduction in the number of officers walking streets in the area during the day.

"What we want is to have the correct number of police at the correct times," he said.

The Honolulu Police Department beefed up patrols in Chinatown in April, following two violent attacks. HPD Chief Boisse Correa has said the number of officers patrolling the streets increased threefold — from about 10 walking the area at any one time to about 30.

At a community meeting on Chinatown Wednesday, Correa said he is "getting feedback that we have too many officers" in the area. He told residents that he has no immediate plans to reduce the number of officers, but said that at some point the number will be decreased.

Correa said that the increase in police has resulted in the closure of several gambling houses. It has also meant a significant increase in the number of citations issued.

From April 4 to Monday, officers patrolling Chinatown issued 1,439 "moving citations," which include citations issued for failing to obey a traffic signal, improperly changing lanes and not stopping at a stop sign. That's nearly five times the number of "moving citations" issued from Feb. 2 to April 3, before the police presence in Chinatown was increased.

Meanwhile, police issued 905 parking citations in the month following the increase in officers — nearly double the number issued in the previous month. Parking citations can include parking too close to an intersection or improperly parking in a passenger loading zone.

In addition to citations, police said this week they have arrested 17 people since April in Chinatown on drug-related offenses. A comparison on drug-related arrests in previous months was not immediately available.

Police Maj. Clayton Saito, district commander, said the department is making weekly assessments to determine whether to scale back the patrols. He said many like the idea of seeing more police in Chinatown, and those who don't are often people who have been cited.

"More people are being caught because there's more police down there to do the catching," Saito said, adding the increased patrols won't be around forever.

"There's going to need to be a balance. The officers are going to have to be redeployed," he said.

Dolores Mollring, a member of the Downtown Neighborhood Board and the Chinatown citizens patrol, said that she has heard the complaints about the increased police presence.

But she isn't buying them.

"I figure if you break the law you deserve" a ticket, Mollring said.

Residents and merchants called for more city involvement in Chinatown after the two violent attacks, which happened just yards from each other. In the first attack March 28, a man was fatally shot at the intersection of River and Pauahi streets.

Then, on April 3, a group of men stabbed a man and then beat his female acquaintance. Correa has said the two attacks were part of a turf war over the distribution of drugs in Chinatown.