STAND. COM. REP. NO. 236

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 1237

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Health and Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 1237 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE DISCLOSURE OF VITAL STATISTICS RECORDS TO LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

    The purpose and intent of this measure is to authorize the Department of Health to provide certain public health records to law enforcement officers to facilitate criminal investigations.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Police Department, City and County of Honolulu; and the Police Department, County of Maui. Your Committees received comments on this measure from The League of Women Voters of Hawaii.

 

     Your Committees find that law enforcement officers frequently need access to public health records to facilitate criminal investigations.  This measure provides law enforcement officers acting in their official capacity with access to this information while ensuring that the information will only be used for evidentiary purposes.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to allow for further discussion of this measure; and

 

     (2)  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 Health and Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1237, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1237, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

 

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

 

____________________________

WILL ESPERO, Chair

 

____________________________

JOSH GREEN, M.D., Chair