STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2738

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2851

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirtieth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2020

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2851 entitled:

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

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to authorize the Department of the Attorney General to have law enforcement vehicles.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of the Attorney General and Maui Police Department. Your Committee received comments on this measure from one individual.

Your Committee finds that existing law tasks the Attorney General with the responsibility to investigate and prosecute violations of law. Investigators with the Department of the Attorney General and the Attorney General each have all the powers and authority of a police officer or a deputy sheriff. Despite this authority, your Committee finds that the Department of the Attorney General does not have the official and explicit authority to use law enforcement vehicles with emergency response lights. While law enforcement officers with the Department of the Attorney General are primarily investigators, they are also emergency responders that require the use of properly equipped emergency vehicles. This measure will address this oversight by authorizing the Department of the Attorney General to use a law enforcement vehicle.

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. 2851, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2851, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary.

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

________________________________

CLARENCE K. NISHIHARA, Chair