Report Title:

Penal Code, Offenses Against Public Order

Description:

Redefines the offense of disorderly conduct. Expands scope of violation of privacy to include recording or broadcasting a person's intimate area underneath clothing while in a public place, without that person's consent.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

802

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2003

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

RELATING TO CHAPTER 711, HAWAII REVISED STATUTES.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. Chapter 711, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§711- Definitions. For the purposes of sections 711-1110.9 and 711-1111:

"Record" means to videotape, film, photograph, or record electronically."

SECTION 2. Section 711-1101, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (1) to read as follows:

"(1) A person commits the offense of disorderly conduct if, with intent to cause physical inconvenience or alarm by a member or members of the public, or recklessly creating a risk thereof, the person:

(a) Engages in fighting or threatening, or in violent or tumultuous behavior; or

(b) Makes unreasonable noise; or

(c) [Makes any offensively coarse utterance, gesture, or display,] Subjects another person to offensively coarse behavior or [addresses] abusive language [to any person present,] which is likely to provoke a violent response; or

(d) Creates a hazardous or physically offensive condition by any act which is not performed under any authorized license or permit; or

(e) Impedes or obstructs, for the purpose of begging or soliciting alms, any person in any public place or in any place open to the public."

SECTION 3. Section 711-1110.9, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"[[]§711-1110.9[]] Violation of privacy in the first degree. (1) A person commits the offense of violation of privacy in the first degree if, except in the execution of a public duty or as authorized by law, the person intentionally or knowingly installs in any private place, without consent of the person or persons entitled to privacy therein, any device for observing, [photographing, videotaping, filming,] recording, amplifying, or broadcasting another person in a stage of undress or sexual activity in that place, or uses any such unauthorized installation.

(2) Violation of privacy in the first degree is a class C felony. In addition to any penalties the court may impose, the court may order the destruction of any recording made in violation of this section."

SECTION 4. Section 711-1111, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§711-1111 Violation of privacy in the second degree. (1) A person commits the offense of violation of privacy in the second degree if, except in the execution of a public duty or as authorized by law, the person intentionally:

(a) Trespasses on property for the purpose of subjecting anyone to eavesdropping or other surveillance in a private place; or

(b) Installs in any private place, without consent of the person or persons entitled to privacy therein, any device for observing, [photographing, videotaping, filming,] recording, amplifying, or broadcasting sounds or events in that place other than another person in a stage of undress or sexual activity, or uses any such unauthorized installation; or

(c) Installs or uses outside a private place any device for hearing, recording, amplifying, or broadcasting sounds originating in that place which would not ordinarily be audible or comprehensible outside, without the consent of the person or persons entitled to privacy therein; or

(d) Records or broadcasts an image of another person's intimate area underneath clothing, by use of any device, and such image is taken while that person is in a public place and without that person's consent; or

[(d)] (e) Intercepts, without the consent of the sender or receiver, a message by telephone, telegraph, letter, electronic transmission, or other means of communicating privately; but this subsection does not apply to:

(i) Overhearing of messages through a regularly installed instrument on a telephone party line or an extension; or

(ii) Interception by the telephone company, electronic mail account provider, or telephone or electronic mail subscriber incident to enforcement of regulations limiting use of the facilities or incident to other operation and use; or

[(e)] (f) Divulges without the consent of the sender or the receiver the existence or contents of any message by telephone, telegraph, letter, electronic transmission, or other means of communicating privately, if the accused knows that the message was unlawfully intercepted, or if the accused learned of the message in the course of employment with an agency engaged in transmitting it; or

[(f)] (g) Knowingly possesses materials created under circumstances prohibited in section 711-1110.9.

(2) For the purposes of this section:

"Intimate areas" means any portion of a person's underwear, pubic area, anus, buttocks, vulva, genitals, or female breast.

"Intimate areas underneath clothing" does not include intimate areas visible through a person's clothing.

"Public place" means an area generally open to the public, regardless of whether it is privately owned, and includes, but is not limited to, streets, sidewalks, bridges, alleys, plazas, parks, driveways, parking lots, buses, tunnels, buildings, stores, and restaurants.

[(2)] (3) Violation of privacy in the second degree is a misdemeanor."

SECTION 5. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 6. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:

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By Request