Bill Text: HI SB2194 | 2016 | Regular Session | Amended

Hawaii Senate Bill 2194 (Prior Session Legislation)

Bill Title: Crime Reporting; Police Departments; Law Enforcement; Attorney General

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 6-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2016-02-12 - Report adopted; Passed Second Reading, as amended (SD 1) and referred to JDL. [SB2194 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2016-SB2194-Amended.html

THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	2194
TWENTY-EIGHTH LEGISLATURE, 2016		S.D. 1
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

RELATING TO LAW ENFORCEMENT.

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

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that crime statistics are an important tool used by various levels of law enforcement to determine the best allocation of limited resources. Furthermore, crime statistics serve as an important social indicator that enables federal agencies to determine which locales need grant money to address crime-related social issues. Criminal justice experts study the data to reveal trends, causes, effects, and preventive measures.

The legislature further finds that the state and federal governments scrutinize crime statistics to ensure accuracy, make decisions, and form policy. Crime statistics include the incidences of nine specific crimes: murder, non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson.

It has come to the attention of the legislature that not all of the county police departments have reported crime statistics to the state attorney general's office since 2012, which means that the public lacks helpful data that could be used to assess the impacts of those nine specific crimes within the past few years. In addition, the attorney general collects the crime statistics from all four county police departments and forwards them to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Federal Bureau of Investigation administers a national program known as the Uniform Crime Reporting Program, to which other states report their respective crime data. The Uniform Crime Reporting Program in turn has released the data to the public regularly since 1930.

The Uniform Crime Reporting Program was first established by the International Association of Chiefs of Police in 1893. The Association's goals have always been to improve the administrative and technical operations of police work, promote police cooperation and the exchange of information and experience among police around the globe, recruit and train qualified personnel, and ensure that all police officials conduct themselves with high standards of performance, ethics, integrity, community interaction, and professionalism. Currently, a total of eighteen thousand cities, universities, colleges, counties, tribes, and federal law enforcement agencies, as well as states from around the country, are releasing their crime data to the public voluntarily.

The purpose of this Act is to require each county police department, the department of public safety, and the various state law enforcement divisions to submit their respective crime statistics to the department of the attorney general, and in turn, require the department of the attorney general to transmit the data to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for its Uniform Crime Reporting Program.

SECTION 2. Chapter 26, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§26- State law enforcement; reports to department of the attorney general. All state departments or agencies having a law enforcement division or law enforcement functions shall report annually, or as otherwise directed by the attorney general, data concerning the incidences of specified crimes as determined by the attorney general."

SECTION 3. Chapter 52D, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§52D- Reports to the department of the attorney general. The chief of each county police department shall report annually, or as otherwise directed by the attorney general, to the department of the attorney general data concerning the incidences of specified crimes as determined by the attorney general."

SECTION 4. Section 28-10.6, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§28-10.6 Crime research, prevention, and education; administrator and staff. (a) The department of the attorney general shall initiate, develop, and perform or coordinate programs, projects, and activities, as determined by the attorney general, on the subject of crime, including but not limited to crime research, prevention, and education. The attorney general may:

(1) Research, evaluate, and make recommendations regarding crime, crime prevention, and the criminal justice system to the governor, the legislature, the judiciary, criminal justice agencies, or the general public, as appropriate;

(2) Develop and implement or coordinate statewide crime prevention programs and activities including:

(A) Providing crime prevention training programs for law enforcement agencies, citizens, businesses, and civic groups; and

(B) Assisting in the organization of crime prevention teams in communities to encourage the development of community crime prevention programs;

(3) Develop public education programs through various broadcast or print media to provide to the general public information that will assist citizens in developing the knowledge and confidence to prevent crime and to avoid becoming victims of crime;

(4) Establish, as deemed by the attorney general to be necessary or appropriate, citizen and government agency representative study teams to study specific crime subjects or criminal justice system problems, in order to obtain input or advice from a more specialized segment of the criminal justice or public community on those specific matters; and

(5) Establish trust funds or accounts and receive and expend financial grants and donations for crime research, prevention, or education.

(b) The attorney general shall collect and compile information received under sections 26- and 52D- for transmission to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reporting Program.

[~~(b)~~] (c) The attorney general may employ, without regard to chapter 76, and at the attorney general's pleasure dismiss, an administrator to oversee and carry out the programs, projects, and activities on the subject of crime, as set forth in subsection (a). The attorney general may also employ other support staff, in accordance with chapter 76, necessary for the performance or coordination of the programs, projects, and activities on the subject of crime."

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.

Report Title:

Crime Reporting; Police Departments; Law Enforcement; Attorney General

Description:

Requires each county police department and all state departments and agencies having law enforcement divisions or law enforcement functions to report crime data to the department of the attorney general for transmission to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. (SD1)

The summary description of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.