STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2269

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2588

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2588 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO UNSWORN FALSIFICATION TO A LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

     (1)  Create the offense of unsworn falsification to a law enforcement officer; and

     (2)  Establish a penalty of not less than a misdemeanor.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Honolulu Police Department and the Maui Police Department.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from Babooze Bowstrings and one individual.

     Your Committee finds that when a person deliberately provides a false statement or document to a law enforcement officer during an investigation, these statements or documents cause delays in an investigation by diverting attention and resources from actual leads in the investigation to an individual having nothing to do with the crime, allowing the suspect to flee.  Hawaii's penal code does not adequately address these types of situations.  This measure will ensure that investigations are completed without undue delay due to intentionally false statements or documents intended to hinder the investigation.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2588, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2588, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs,

____________________________

WILL ESPERO, Chair