STAND. COM. REP. NO. 780

                                 Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                   , 1999

                                 RE: H.B. No. 1541
                                     H.D. 1




Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say
Speaker, House of Representatives
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 1999
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Consumer Protection and Commerce, to which
was referred H.B. No. 1541 entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PAWNBROKERS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to allow the Chief of Police of
each county to:

     (1)  Require that pawnshop transactions and agreements be
          recorded on a computerized form authorized by the Chief
          of Police;

     (2)  Select the computer system to be used; and

     (3)  Prescribe the necessary time period within which the
          change-over to computerized forms would take place.

     Your Committee received testimony supporting this measure
from the Hawaii Pawnbrokers Association (HPA) and the Honolulu
Police Department (HPD).  HPA testified that it generally
supported the bill, which would:

     (1)  Allow the HPD to keep track of the huge volume of
          pawnshop transactions;

     (2)  Identify the pawned items involved; and

     (3)  Match pawned items with those described in HPD stolen
          property reports.

 
                                 STAND. COM. REP. NO. 780
                                 Page 2

 

HPA stated that little had been done to work out the details of
the project but pledged its cooperation with agencies in
developing the program and felt the bill was necessary to
authorize the project and get it moving.

     HPD agreed that a computerized system to track pawnshop
transactions was needed and stated that one of its detectives had
already begun investigating alternative systems that could be
used for the project.

     Upon consideration of this measure, your Committee has made
nonsubstantive amendments to conform this bill to standard
drafting conventions.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your
Committee on Consumer Protection and Commerce that is attached to
this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and
purpose of H.B. No. 1541, as amended herein, and recommends that
it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No.
1541, H.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

                                   Respectfully submitted on
                                   behalf of the members of the
                                   Committee on Consumer
                                   Protection and Commerce,



                                   ______________________________
                                   RON MENOR, Chair