SB3017 SD1 SSCR2490

 

STAND. COM. REP. 2490

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2004

RE: S.B. No. 3017

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 3017 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to establish a bill of rights for law enforcement officers.

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers.

Testimony in opposition to this measure was submitted by the Department of Human Resources of the City and County of Honolulu, the Honolulu Police Department, the Hawaii County Police Department, and the Maui County Police Department.

Comments on this measure were also submitted by the Office of Information Practices.

Your Committee finds that a law enforcement officer plays a unique and crucial role in our society. A law enforcement officer is tasked with the responsibility to protect our citizens and maintain order within the community, and, as a result, is empowered with a considerable amount of authority in order to satisfy these obligations. Your Committee further finds that when a law enforcement officer is the subject of a criminal or internal investigation, clear procedures and guidelines must be in place in order to prevent the violation of a law enforcement officer's constitutional and statutory rights. Therefore, your Committee determines that although law enforcement officers may attempt to garner protections for themselves through an agreement with their employers, certain rights should be statutorily mandated to ensure the proper protection of these individuals. Additionally, your Committee believes that the protections already available to an officer with regard to the officer's ability to respond to adverse comments and correct errors in the officer's personnel records, under the Uniform Information Practices Act, should not be abrogated or otherwise diminished, but should remain intact.

Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Prohibiting a disciplinary action to be imposed on a law enforcement officer prior to the execution of step 4, instead of step 3, of the grievance appeal process;

(2) Deleting language relating to procedures for the response to adverse comments;

(3) Deleting language relating to the correction of an officer's personnel records;

(4) Including language referencing part III of chapter 92F, the Uniform Information Practices Act, with regard to an officer's rights and the procedures for responding to adverse comments and correcting an officer's personnel records; and

(5) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for purposes of clarity and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3017, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3017, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Labor,

		____________________________ BRIAN KANNO, Chair