Field Guide ยท Free

Two records, one year: community reports beside the official record

Covers July 2025 through June 2026 · published 2026-07-08 HST

For the first time, a full year of community reporting sits beside the official record. They are different instruments: an official record is an entry in HPD's public system; a community report is an unverified resident submission to the Stolen Stuff Hawaii network, including the historical SSH community archive. Shown side by side, month by month, they tell you what each one measures.

The year, month by month

MonthOfficial (HPD)Community reports
Jul 2025not yet in coverage349 (partial month)
Aug 20251,902 (partial month)436
Sep 20252,525374
Oct 20252,385373
Nov 20252,286432
Dec 20252,306515
Jan 20262,303526
Feb 20262,076696
Mar 20262,3591,164
Apr 20262,179649
May 20262,353723
Jun 20262,384607

HPD coverage begins August 8, 2025, so July 2025 has no official figure and August is a partial month. Community capture begins July 6, 2025, so July 2025 is a partial community month. Figures are the monthly issue records for Oahu islandwide; community counts include the placed (geocoded) reports that flow into area figures.

One steady, one responsive

The official record held inside a narrow band all year: between 2,076 and 2,525 recorded incidents in every full month. The community record varied nearly threefold, from 374 to 1,164, rising through the winter, peaking with the March flood, and settling back through the spring. That difference in movement is the difference in instruments, not a contradiction: the official record counts what was reported to and recorded by police, while community reporting moves with events, with what residents choose to share, and with participation and capture channels.

What only one of them measures

Over the same year, community members logged 2,795 lost-and-found reports and 1,513 pet reports. The official crime feed recorded none in those domains, and it never would: a found wallet or a missing dog is not a crime. Roughly speaking, the community record's largest single use is one the official record does not serve at all. In the other direction, the official record counts a large volume of incidents that never surface in community posts.

Why we never add them together

Some incidents appear in both records; many appear in only one. Summing them would double-count some events and invent a precision neither source has, so the platform keeps them on separate axes, labeled, with the divergences shown as findings rather than reconciled away.

How to read this. Everything we publish is descriptive: what was recorded, reported, noticed, and sought, in a stated past period, with caveats. Figures are aggregate and de-identified; person-linked counts under 5 are suppressed; per-capita rates use daytime population with 95% confidence bands. Never a forecast, score, ranking, or safety judgment. Full detail: the methodology page.
Official crime figures derive from data.Honolulu.gov (HPD), modified for use from the original source. The City & County of Honolulu does not vouch for the quality and timeliness of the data presented herein, any analysis of the data presented herein, nor any content, viewpoints, products, or services presented herein. Not endorsed or certified by the U.S. Census Bureau.