Bill Text: HI SB943 | 2013 | Regular Session | Amended

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Bill Title: Criminal Trespass; Public Housing Project

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2013-02-15 - Report adopted; Passed Second Reading, as amended (SD 1) and referred to JDL. [SB943 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2013-SB943-Amended.html

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STAND. COM. REP. NO. 447

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 943

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committees on Human Services and Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 943 entitled:

 

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

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to broaden the offense of criminal trespass in the first degree to include a person who enters or remains unlawfully in or upon the premises of a public housing project after a reasonable request or warning to leave by housing authorities or a police officer, excluding an invited guest, unless the invited guest is violating a law or public housing project rule.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of the Attorney General and Hawaii Public Housing Authority.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii.

 

     Your Committees find that the Hawaii Public Housing Authority continues to make improvements to security measures at many of the high risk housing projects, including the addition of fences, security fences, and photo identification cards for tenants.  Enacting this measure will significantly improve the ability of the Authority to ensure a secure, livable community for residents.  Meanwhile, the Authority will continue to work with local law enforcement and security personnel to refine policies and procedures to effectively keep residents safe and secure.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Changing references from "police officer" to "law enforcement officer";

 

     (2)  Specifying that an alleged violation of law or administrative rules shall serve as the basis for housing authorities and law enforcement officers to issue reasonable warnings or requests to leave, the violation of which constitutes the offense of criminal trespass in the first degree; and

 

     (3)  Removing language relating to a warning or request to leave not being necessary between 10:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. whether a person is not an invited guest and deleting the definition of "invited guest" as a conforming amendment.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Human Services and Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 943, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 943, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Human Services and Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs,

 

____________________________ WILL ESPERO, Chair		____________________________ SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair