Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Transportation, to which was referred H.B. No. 78 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to promote public safety by making it unlawful for any person to manufacture, sell, display, permit to be displayed, or possess any reproduction, imitation, or facsimile of a license plate with a similar design, shape, size, and color of the license plates contracted to be produced by the Director of Finance of the City and County of Honolulu for the counties.

The Department of Customer Services of the City and County of Honolulu and the Honolulu Police Department testified in support of this measure.

Currently, no statutory provision exists regarding the manufacturing, selling, displaying, or possession of facsimile license plates. Modern technology such as laser printers, scanners, and digital copiers, which are readily available in today's electronic market, have made the production of fraudulent license plates a fairly simple process. This can have a dramatic effect on crime since fraudulent license plates could be used on vehicles involved in criminal activity in order to prevent easy identification of the vehicle. This measure would help ease these concerns.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Transportation that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 78 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary.