By Joe Guzzardi

Let’s be clear from the outset. Travelers who have never visited Honolulu, Hawaii’s capital located on Oahu, should make it their next destination before what was once paradise vanishes forever.

In some ways, Honolulu, with Waikiki Beach and Diamond Head, is still magnificent. But with each day that passes, Honolulu is less like the garden utopia that existed decades ago and that might still live in many people’s Hawaiian fantasies.

In the 1920s, not that long ago in the long-term picture, a Los Angeles Steamship Company ocean liner sailed for the Hawaiian Islands every Saturday to make the 2,500 mile journey, while the Royal Hawaiian band played “Aloha Oe.” As friends and family stood cheering, tossing confetti and waving goodbye, passengers danced on deck to the popular jazz tunes that the ship’s band played. Ocean travel’s romantic imagery soon gave way to quicker airliners, and eventually to jumbo jets like the Airbus A330 that brings millions of worldwide tourists to Honolulu each year, great for the state’s multi-billion dollar economy but devastating to its landscape.

Many of Honolulu’s popular restaurants display glorious pictures from the 1930s. In one, legendary surfer Duke Kahanamoku is standing on Waikiki’s shoreline without another building in sight. Today, the coast is overbuilt with high-rise condos and expensive resorts. International sunbathers lie shoulder-to-shoulder, a far cry from the magnificent conditions during the Duke’s day.

Since 1970, when the Ala Moana Hotel was Honolulu’s first building to exceed 350 feet, the construction boom has brought the total to more than 470 high-rises. To put the 470 number in perspective, it places Honolulu as sixth in the nation behind New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston and Washington, D.C. More than 17 Honolulu asymmetric eyesores exceed 40 floors.

With tourism comes the rental car scourge, the leading factor in Honolulu’s ranking on America’s most congressed highways’ list. In the dubious most trafficked category, Honolulu comes in eighth, behind nightmarish California cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Jose. Consistent with Americans’ love affair with the automobile, tourists disdain a viable public transportation option, Honolulu’s efficient citywide bus system.

Like much of the rest of the nation, Honolulu’s underbelly has a growing homeless population. In 2016, Hawaii Governor David Y. Ige, in an effort to move homeless individuals away from popular tourist hotels, declared a state of emergency. A U.S. Housing and Development report identified Honolulu as having America’s highest per capital homelessness rate, hardly surprising given the city’s exorbitant living costs. Recently, Hawaii set up a homelessness initiative to help identify the neediest among the unsheltered and get them emergency medical attention. In the meantime, homelessness has contributed to an increased crime rate.

Population increases have also contributed to Honolulu’s sprawl. Since 2010, Honolulu’s population increased 3.7 percent from 953,000 to 989,000, an unsustainable growth pattern. Honolulu’s construction boom brought with it a significant migration increase; the U.S. Census Bureau reflects a 9.7 percent Latino population.

When asked about Honolulu’s transformation over the decades kama’ainas, native Hawaiians or long-time residents, express resignation to their diminished quality of life. Some have departed for the mainland. Last year, more than 1,000 people, net, left Hawaii.

No matter how gradually they occur, dramatic changes like those Honolulu has undergone are hard to come to terms with, especially for those who knew it back when.

The Indiana State Police Forensic Scientist of the Year Award is presented annually to a Forensic Scientist within the Laboratory Division deemed to have consistently provided a superior quality forensic analysis service in a highly professional, proficient, and unbiased manner for the Indiana Criminal Justice Community.

Recently, at an awards ceremony held in Indianapolis, Superintendent Douglas G. Carter and his primary staff recognized Marcus Montooth for his work and dedication while presenting him with the Forensic Scientist of the Year Award.

Below is the nomination letter prepared by Major Steve Holland, Commander of the Indiana State Police Laboratory Division, recommending Montooth for the award.

In 2017 the Latent Print Identification Unit Supervisor, Forensic Scientist Marcus Montooth, and the staff under his supervision completed a very productive year.  While working understaffed for most all of the year, and during a year in which the Laboratory Division underwent a reaccreditation assessment by the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors/Laboratory Accreditation Board, under the leadership of Mr. Montooth the Latent Print Identification Unit reduced its case backlog to record levels, taking it from nearly 600 cases to under 200 cases.  The Unit also neared the 45 day turnaround goal for incoming cases as set by the Laboratory Division.  The reduction in case backlog for this Unit is a remarkable achievement.  The leadership and management efforts displayed and implemented by Mr. Montooth are to be recognized as having provided the direction, motivation, and support for his staff to have accomplished this achievement.

Mr. Montooth managed the case flow in a most efficient manner.  He transferred cases between the four regional laboratories as the backlogs fluctuated at the individual laboratories.  He made a proposal that ultimately modified existing policy that included allowing digital evidence to be received electronically, which has streamlined many latent print examinations.  This organizational change should make an enormous positive impact on the way the Laboratory Division conducts workflow in the future.  In fact, other crime lab systems outside the State of Indiana have asked for guidance on electronic evidence submissions since this protocol was first implemented here.  This change not only affected the Laboratory Division internally, but it also positively affected those officers and agencies who previously had to deliver evidence over long distances to the Regional Laboratories.  The contributors now have the option of submitting digital evidence electronically, which has provided cost savings and efficiency gains for all involved in the handling, submitting, and analyzing evidence.  This type of policy and operational change is groundbreaking within crime laboratories across the nation.

Mr. Montooth implemented casework assessment measures that he shared with other supervisory staff within the Laboratory Division.  These measures involved monthly self-assessments of analyst casework, and provided a means of motivational leadership to his staff by providing a routine opportunity for a self-assessment of work.

Mr. Montooth also completed another backlog reduction project that resulted in the implementation of policy for withdrawing open latent print examinations that are associated with DNA matches in the Combined Offender DNA Index System (CODIS).  This new protocol eliminated conducting unnecessary analysis by his staff, which allowed personnel to work other cases in the backlog.

Mr. Montooth provided leadership and guidance with the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) program by implementing several improvements that included the use of Universal Latent Workstation training and the Unsolved Latent Match Project as part of the Next Generation Identification System.  These initiatives resulted in 20 cold case matches in AFIS.  As part of Mr. Montooth’s responsibilities with the computer refresh project, he also coordinated the purchase and installation of Biometric Connect software for his staff, and he evaluated the new Nitto Fingerprint Lifts for use by Department personnel.

Mr. Montooth provided leadership in another project that provided workflow efficiencies for the entire Indiana Criminal Justice Community.  Mr. Montooth worked with a select few other Laboratory Division staff in deploying new electronic Property Record and Receipt and Request for Laboratory Examination forms.  This project, which was outside of his normal duties and responsibilities, took much time and effort to see to a successful completion in December 2017.  The project resulted in providing a more efficient and effective evidence management system by streamlining the processes of documenting, storing, and submitting evidence to the laboratories.  Because of Mr. Montooth’s work on this project, implementing these new electronic and dynamic forms was accomplished internally at no additional cost to the laboratory’s operations.  Users from the contributing agencies have routinely commented how much more efficient and effective the use of these forms provides to their needs with respect to time and detail with submitting evidence for analysis.  Mr. Montooth was involved in every facet of this project—from conceptualizing, to designing, and to implementing—that included the training and trouble-shooting components.  He took ownership of this important project, worked tirelessly, and spent many hours toward ensuring this project was successful to the benefit of the users.

Finally, Mr. Montooth attended the International Association for Identification (IAI) conference and was invited to be a part of a panel discussion on “Leadership in Forensics”.  He was also asked to instruct at the Illinois chapter of the IAI on the topic of “Errors in Casework”, which is a topic Mr. Montooth has been a leader in within the field of latent print examinations for the past several years.

Forensic Scientist Montooth graduated in 2001 with a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Evansville.  He started his employment with the Indiana State Police Laboratory Division in April 2003 at the Evansville Regional Laboratory.

Forensic Scientist Montooth resides with his wife, Alicia, and their two sons in the Evansville, Indiana area.