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Posted: Thursday, July 12th, 2012 9:06 AM HST

Prosecutor candidates face off in Hilo

By Ken Hupp - 67AM KPUA News

The three candidates for County Prosecuting Attorney faced off last night at a political forum in Hilo sponsored by the American Association of University Women and the League of Women Voters. Lincoln Ashida, Mitchell Roth and Paul Dolan answered a wide range of questions from the audience on topics including crime prevention, relieving the backlog of court cases, improving various services and curbing drunk driving. Ashida noted that despite heavy enforcement, the number of drunk driving arrests are not coming down and said we need to look elsewhere for solutions. “The brutal reality is this: Stopping one drunk driver, putting a locking mechanism on their car is not going to do a damn thing,” Ashida said. Ashida said alcohol is a disease and illness that needs to addressed on the therapeutic level. He said rehabilitative services are the only hope for stemming DUI offenses. But Roth disputed Ashida’s claim that the use of ignition locks are not effective. “The ignitionary lock program has been very successful,” Roth said. “The first year we installed over 1,000 inter-lock systems and to date we have over 11,000 alcohol-prevented starts. They could have been out killing people.” Roth also cited passage of a bill that allows police to tow the vehicles of motorists stopped for DUI offenses, driving without a license or with a suspended or revoked license. He said one-third of our traffic deaths are caused by motorists without a license. Dolan said the key is changing personal behavior. “People need to stop drinking,” Dolan said. “People have to analyze their drinking behavior before they drive. They need to take full responsibility when they have parties.” Dolan also said 12 step programs should be made mandatory in all our schools. The candidates are vying to succeed Jay Kimura who has served as Prosecuting Attorney since 1992, but retired last year prior to the end of his term.