STAND. COM. REP. NO. 556

                                 Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                   , 1999

                                 RE: H.B. No. 1528
                                     H.D. 1




Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say
Speaker, House of Representatives
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 1999
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Transportation, to which was referred H.B.
No. 1528 entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PENALTIES AND PROCEDURES ON
     ARREST,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to give police officers the
authority to arrest persons who evade the law by failing to
provide proof of identification and giving out false or
misleading identities.

     Your Committee finds that police officers have a difficult
time verifying people's identities.  Police officers must rely on
verbal information supplied by a person if he or she cannot show
proof of identification, and there have been numerous incidents
in which people have given false identification.  There is an
added problem for police officers in that, when shown an out-of-
state driver's license, the police have no method by which they
can trace the license, and again, they are forced to accept this
as proof of identification.

     This bill proposes to authorize police officers to arrest
persons stopped for traffic violations who refuse to provide
proof of their identification or who are suspected of providing
false or misleading information.  This is to be done by amending
subsection (c) of Section 291C-16, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to
include persons who violate section 291C-172.


 
 
                                 STAND. COM. REP. NO. 556
                                 Page 2

 
     Testimonies in support of this bill were received from the
Department of the Prosecuting Attorney, the City and County of
Honolulu, and the Honolulu Police Department.  Testimonies in
opposition to this bill were heard from the State Office of the
Public Defender and Common Cause Hawaii.

     Your Committee has amended this bill by including an
amendment to subsection (a) of Section 291C-172, Hawaii Revised
Statutes, to clarify that the proof of identification is to apply
only to any driver of a motor vehicle or moped.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your
Committee on Transportation that is attached to this report, your
Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No.
1528, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second
Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1528, H.D. 1, and
be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs.

                                   Respectfully submitted on
                                   behalf of the members of the
                                   Committee on Transportation,



                                   ______________________________
                                   KENNETH T. HIRAKI, Chair