STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2750

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2427

S.D. 2

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 S.B. No. 2427, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO LAW ENFORCEMENT,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Establish a temporary law enforcement working group to make recommendations to the Legislature on establishing professional recruitment, hiring, and training standards for all state law enforcement officers who carry firearms and badges and who have arrest authority; and

(2) Prohibit a law enforcement officer who has been terminated for misconduct by a state or county department, agency, or office in the capacity of law enforcement from being hired by another state or county law enforcement department, agency, or office.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Public Safety, Department of Transportation, Department of Land and Natural Resources, Oahu County Committee on Legislative Priorities of the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i, and one individual. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Taxation.

Your Committee finds that there are no existing statewide standards for recruiting, hiring, and training law enforcement personnel across state agencies, making Hawaii one of the few states lacking in such statewide standards. Establishing statewide standards for recruiting, hiring, and training of law enforcement personnel will promote uniformity in law enforcement throughout the State, allow state and county law enforcement agencies to adopt best practices, and enable superior coordination and cooperation among law enforcement agencies in Hawaii.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Changing all references to "state law enforcement officers" throughout the measure to "state and county law enforcement officers" to clarify that the working group's consideration extends to all law enforcement departments, agencies, and offices in Hawaii;

(2) Replacing the representative of the Harbors Division of the Department of Transportation and the representative of the Airports Division of the Department of Transportation with a single representative of the Department of Transportation on the proposed law enforcement working group;

(3) Requiring that law enforcement officers who are reinstated shall be removed from the list of terminated law enforcement officers maintained by the Department of the Attorney General as soon as reasonably possible;

(4) Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2035, to encourage further discussion; and

(5) 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 Judiciary that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2427, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2427, S.D. 2.

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

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BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair