STAND. COM. REP. NO. 656-04
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2004
RE: H.B. No. 2259
H.D. 1
Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say
Speaker, House of Representatives
Twenty-Second State Legislature
Regular Session of 2004
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred H.B. No. 2259 entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO MISUSE OF 911,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose of the bill is to create a misdemeanor offense for using the 911 emergency telephone number to make a false alarm, false complaint, or report of false information.
The Police Department of the City and County of Honolulu and the Maui County Police Department submitted testimony in support of this measure.
Your Committee finds that operations of the 911 call centers experience a large volume of calls, each of which they are required to process. False reports, false complaints, or false information made to 911 call centers consume limited resources that should be focused on legitimate emergency situations.
Your Committee has amended this bill by:
(1) Clarifying that the misdemeanor involves the misuse of a 911 call in reckless disregard of the risk that a public safety agency will respond by dispatching emergency services;
(2) Defining "public safety agency" as any federal, state, or county police, fire, emergency medical service, or civil defense relief agency; and
(3) Making technical, nonsubstantive changes for clarity, consistency, and style.
As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2259, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2259, H.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary,
|
____________________________ ERIC G. HAMAKAWA, Chair |
||