STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1307
Honolulu, Hawaii
RE: H.B. No. 277
H.D. 2
S.D. 1
Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi
President of the Senate
Thirty-Third State Legislature
Regular Session of 2025
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committees on Transportation and Culture and the Arts and Public Safety and Military Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 277, H.D. 2, entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO VEHICULAR PURSUIT,"
beg leave to report as follows:
The
purpose and intent of this measure is to establish a vehicular pursuit policy
for law enforcement agencies.
Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the ACLU of Hawaiʻi and Policing Project at NYU School of Law.
Your Committees received testimony in
opposition to this measure from the Law Enforcement Standards Board and Hawaiʻi County Police Department.
Your Committees
received comments on this measure from the
Department of the Attorney General and Office of Information Practices.
Your Committees find that the current lack of standardized pursuit policies across the State's law enforcement agencies creates unnecessary risks and potential misuse of police discretion. Implementing basic requirements for pursuits to be authorized and for documenting them afterwards are common sense measures to protect communities from risky action during a police pursuit. By setting expectations, standards, and reporting requirements for police practices, this measure will advance public safety and avoid needless fatalities and injuries.
Your Committees note the comments raised by the Law Enforcement Standards Board regarding the ambiguity of crimes that qualify as reasonable suspicion to authorize law enforcement to engage in a vehicular pursuit.
Accordingly, your Committees have
amended this measure by:
(1) Specifying that no law enforcement officer shall engage in a vehicular pursuit unless the officer has a reasonable suspicion to believe that a person in the vehicle to be pursued is attempting to commit, has committed, or is committing a crime;
(2) Deleting the list of qualified offenses that authorize law enforcement officer to engage in a vehicular pursuit;
(A) Receive an annual report from each law enforcement agency regarding vehicular pursuits;
(B) Make all information obtained from each annual report publicly available online; and
(C) Adopt rules regarding the collection and reporting of data by each law enforcement agency; and
(4) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.
As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Transportation and Culture and the Arts and Public Safety and Military Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 277, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 277, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Transportation and Culture and the Arts and Public Safety and Military Affairs,
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________________________________ BRANDON J.C. ELEFANTE, Chair |
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________________________________ CHRIS LEE, Chair |
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