STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2597

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2366

       S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Judiciary and Labor and Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 2366 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO SEXUAL ASSAULT EVIDENCE,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require certain law enforcement agencies and departments to compile information on untested sexual assault collection kits and transmit that information to the Department of the Attorney General.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney, City and County of Honolulu; Department of the Prosecuting Attorney, County of Maui; Police Department, City and County of Honolulu; Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women; Hawaii Women's Coalition; Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest and Hawaii; Hawai‘i State Democratic Women's Caucus; American Association of University Women; Sex Abuse Treatment Center; and Parents and Children Together.

     Your Committees find that there exists a nationwide problem of sexual assault collection kits going untested.  Thorough, timely, and accurate testing of sexual assault collection kits is vital to successful apprehension and conviction of offenders.  An accurate status of untested sexual assault collection kits in the State will ensure that the Attorney General is aware of the number of untested kits in the possession of law enforcement agencies and departments.

     Your Committees have heard the testimony of the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney, City and County of Honolulu, expressing concerns regarding the type of information that this measure requires to be collected and transmitted to the Department of the Attorney General.  Your Committees find that this issue raises concerns that merit further consideration as this measure moves through the legislative process.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Judiciary and Labor and Ways and Means that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2366, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2366, S.D. 1.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Judiciary and Labor and Ways and Means,

________________________________ JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair

________________________________ GILBERT S.C. KEITH-AGARAN, Chair