STAND. COM. REP. NO. 220

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 396

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 396 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO POLICE DEPARTMENTS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to establish that citizen complaints against a police officer that involve allegations of domestic abuse against a family or household member on the part of the police officer are not required to be in writing or sworn to by the complainant.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women, Domestic Violence Action Center, Hawaii State Democratic Women's Caucus, and Hawaii State Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

     Your Committee finds that as part of the police union's collective bargaining agreement, all external complaints against a police officer, including domestic violence complaints, must be in writing and sworn to by the complainant.  This requirement may discourage individuals involved in a domestic dispute with a police officer from reporting the abuse and re‑victimizes a complainant by forcing the complainant to swear to something in writing.  Domestic violence victims should not have to go through a stringent process with little anonymity to make a complaint.  Implementation of this measure provides domestic violence victims with a mechanism to make a domestic violence complaint and avoid re-victimization.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments 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. 396, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 396, 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