Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 637, S.D. 1, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to make an appropriation as a grant-in-aid to the Honolulu Police Department (HPD) for the development of a non-emergency reporting system, known as 3-1-1.

Specifically, the appropriation made by this bill would fund a 3-1-1 call section to receive non-emergency phone requests for assistance, a web site by which the public could submit an online form for assistance, personnel to handle requests for non-emergency services made by telephone or in person, improved information in telephone directories to instruct the public in the use of 9-1-1 and 3-1-1 systems, and an educational program on 3-1-1 non-emergency reporting.

The HPD operates the 9-1-1 emergency phone system for Oahu that handles over a million calls annually, including calls for police, ambulance, and fire response. However, as much as sixty-five to seventy-five per cent of all 9-1-1 calls consist of complaints regarding abandoned vehicles, noise, and animals. Non-emergency calls frequently overwhelm available 9-1-1 operators, resulting in a backlog of emergency 9-1-1 calls awaiting dispatch of appropriate emergency personnel.

The HPD is currently developing a non-emergency report system, known as 3-1-1, to relieve the 9-1-1 system of non-emergency phone calls. According to the HPD, it will use existing personnel to staff the 3-1-1 call center, so no additional personnel costs will be incurred. The HPD expects to save up to seventy per cent of the cost of sending a patrol officer to the scene of a non-emergency request with each 3-1-1 non-emergency report that can be fully processed over the phone.

Your Committee has amended this measure by changing the expending agency from the Honolulu Police Department to the City and County of Honolulu and by making several technical nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 637, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 637, S.D. 2.