STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2738

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2048

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2022

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No. 2048 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO UNLAWFUL CHOP SHOP ACTIVITY,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to establish the criminal offense of unlawful chop shop activity in the first and second degrees and to provide for the forfeiture of property connected with chop shop activity.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Maui County Council. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney of the City and County of Honolulu.

Your Committee finds that there is currently no state statute covering the criminal misconduct of chop shop activity, despite numerous auto theft investigations showing that chop shop activity is a central part of the criminal misconduct. Your Committee further finds that the Crime in the U.S. 2019 report by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Criminal Justice Information Services Division listed Hawaii as having the third highest motor vehicle theft rate in the nation. Furthermore, in 2019 alone, the Maui Police Department reported six hundred and sixty-one motor vehicle theft offenses and $4,421,246 in stolen motor vehicle property. This measure will protect public safety and deter motor vehicle theft by establishing the criminal offense of unlawful chop shop activity and providing for the forfeiture of property connected with unlawful chop shop activity.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Establishing the offense of unlawful chop shop activity as a misdemeanor;

(2) Deleting language that would have created the offenses of illegal chop shop activity in the first and second degrees;

(3) Amending section 1 to reflect its amended purpose;

(4) Inserting an effective date of July 30, 2075, 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. 2048, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2048, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

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

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KARL RHOADS, Chair