STAND. COM. REP. NO. 698

                                   Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                     , 1999

                                   RE:  S.B. No. 931
                                        S.D. 1




Honorable Norman Mizuguchi
President of the Senate
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 1999
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B.
No. 931 entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO WIRETAPPING AND ELECTRONIC
     SURVEILLANCE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to repeal the present version of
Hawaii's electronic surveillance law in favor of a more
comprehensive model patterned after the federal wiretap and
electronic surveillance law.

     Your Committee finds that wiretaps and electronic
surveillance provide effective tools in law enforcement efforts
to curtail violent crimes, organized crime, drug dealing, and
illegal gambling.  Your Committee further finds that there is no
substitute for the quality and quantity of information and
evidence that can be obtained through a wiretap or other
electronic surveillance.  Moreover, your Committee notes that the
new statute proposed in this bill imposes many strenuous
requirements and safeguards to ensure proper use by law
enforcement agencies of this investigative tool.

     Your Committee has amended this bill to correct an internal
cross reference by changing the reference on page 56, line 21,
from "subsection (1)(a)" to "subsection (1)".

 
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                                   STAND. COM. REP. NO. 698
                                   Page 2


     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your
Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your
Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No.
931, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading
in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 931, S.D. 1.

                                 Respectfully submitted on behalf
                                 of the members of the Committee
                                 on Ways and Means,



                                 ________________________________
                                 CAROL FUKUNAGA, Co-Chair



                                 ________________________________
                                 ANDREW LEVIN, Co-Chair

 
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