STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3409

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 1849

H.D. 2

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2018

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred H.B. No. 1849, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PUBLIC SAFETY,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Require police departments to disclose to the Legislature the identity of a police officer upon the officer's suspension or discharge; and

(2) Allow disclosure under the Uniform Information Practices Act of employment misconduct information that results in a county police officer's suspension.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of Information Practices, American Civil Liberties Union of Hawai‘i, Civil Beat Law Center for the Public Interest, Society of Professional Journalists Hawaii Chapter, and Young Progressives Demanding Action. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the League of Women Voters of Hawaii.

Your Committee finds that the Uniform Information Practices Act (UIPA) recognizes a government employee's significant privacy interest in information about possible misconduct up to a point. Under the UIPA, all government employees' misconduct information becomes public if the misconduct resulted in suspension or termination, except police officers, who retain a statutory privacy interest even in information about misconduct that results in suspension.

This measure will increase transparency and accountability in state law enforcement by treating information about a county police officer's suspension the same way as information about any other government employee's suspension, and require police departments to identify officers receiving a suspension in the department's annual reports to the Legislature.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1849, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and recommends that it pass Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary,

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BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair