STAND. COM. REP. NO. 814

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 492

       H.D. 2

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 492, H.D. 2, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PUBLIC SAFETY,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require the Department of Public Safety to develop and implement a comprehensive strategic plan to correct the deficiencies in the Sheriff Division that were reported in Auditor Report No. 10-06, "Audit of the Department of Public Safety, Sheriff Division", dated June 2010. 

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Public Safety, Hawaii Government Employees Association, and nine individuals.

 

     Your Committee finds that state law tasks the Department of Public Safety with the responsibility of formulating and implementing state goals and objectives for law enforcement programs.  However, since the creation of the Department in 1989, the Sheriff Division, saddled with an ill-defined role and a lack of clarity in mission, has struggled to uphold its expanded law enforcement duties and responsibilities as the State's law enforcement needs have expanded.

 

     Since the inception of the Department of Public Safety, a state law enforcement program or strategic plan defining the Sheriff Division's mission and setting boundaries based upon its capabilities has never been fully developed.  This measure requires the Department to develop and implement a comprehensive strategic plan to, among other things: 

 

     (1)  Pursue accreditation for the Sheriff Division from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, Inc., to ensure that proper law enforcement policies and procedures are enacted and followed;

 

     (2)  Correct certain inefficiencies in the warrant process, mainly to reduce the backlog of warrants; and

 

     (3)  Address departmental leadership concerns by developing and implementing internal controls, in accordance with the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission's internal control-integrated framework.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by 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 Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 492, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 492, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 


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

 

 

 

____________________________

WILL ESPERO, Chair