STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2173

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2197

       S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs and Government Operations, to which was referred S.B. No. 2197 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PUBLIC SAFETY,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1)  Require the Attorney General to ensure that all state agencies and departments who employ law enforcement officers report annually to the Legislature on specified information concerning firings, forced resignations, alleged criminal activity, grievances, and incidents of a sexual nature; and

(2)  Require the Department of Transportation, Department of Land and Natural Resources, Department of Public Safety, and county police departments to submit those annual reports.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Public Safety; Department of Land and Natural Resources; Department of Transportation; Ho‘omana Pono, LLC; American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii; Hawaii State Coalition Against Domestic Violence; and three individuals.

     Your Committees find that transparency and accountability in law enforcement agencies create greater public trust in these agencies.  This measure proposes a mechanism for mandatory reporting of information regarding misconduct by law enforcement officers with the intent that timely, consistent exposure of any misconduct by law enforcement officers will provide opportunities for correction of that misconduct and improved law enforcement.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs and Government Operations that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2197, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2197, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committees on Judiciary and Labor and Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs and Government Operations,

________________________________ DONNA MERCADO KIM, Chair

________________________________ CLARENCE K. NISHIHARA, Chair