Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2002

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Labor and Tourism and Intergovernmental Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 1772 entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to allow applicants for police officer positions to be non-residents of Hawaii at the time of their application.

Testimony in support of the measure was received from the County of Hawaii Police Department, the County of Maui Police Department, and a member of the Maui County Council.

Your Committees find that state residency requirements deter prospective police officer applicants at a time when the State suffers from serious shortages in public safety positions.

During your Committees' discussion of this measure, the Chair of the Tourism and Intergovernmental Affairs' Committee questioned whether the measure's passage was necessary in order to resolve the problem of the dwindling supply of police applicants. Testifiers indicated that the residency requirement is a factor in limiting the amount of potential police officer applicants and that such applicants need to be specifically exempted from the statutorily mandated residency requirement in order to allow out-of-state applicants to apply.

Your Committees believe that removing the residency requirement for police officer applicants is prudent and will enable police departments to select qualified police officers from a larger pool of applicants.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Labor and Tourism and Intergovernmental Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1772, and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.