Gov. David Ige on Friday signed House Bill 2171 into law as Act 278, creating a new state Department of Law Enforcement and converting the Department of Public Safety into the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Hawaii has never had a state police department, per se, and the state Sheriff’s Division is under the umbrella of DPS, which runs the jails and prisons.
The signing ceremony was done amid much pomp and circumstance in the state Capitol courtyard in Honolulu, including a bagpiper heralding the start of the ceremony.
“I have been involved with public service for three decades. I think this is the first new department or establishment of a new agency that I can remember in a long, long time,” Ige said. “Over the past few years, we have been focused on two really, really important issues that both deal with the Department of Public Safety. The first has been the transformation of the correctional system from being about incarceration and punishment to being about rehabilitation and reintegration of those incarcerated in our community.
“At the same time over the last couple of years, we have been focused on transformation of state law enforcement” into a separate entity, the governor added.
Ige said it made sense to separate the functions into separate departments.
“We will, as a state, be able to give more attention and focus to both missions,” he said. “This will also streamline complex multi-island investigations. … It will improve our ability to address state priorities with county law enforcement partners, and create centralized command and control for critical incident management.
“Importantly, the new department will ensure that there uniform standards for officers to follow. I believe this will go a long way toward increasing public trust.”
The new law went into effect upon Ige’s signature.
The statute transfers the administration of criminal law enforcement and investigations from DPS to the Department of Law Enforcement and establishes the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for the administration of the state’s prisons and jails effective Jan. 1, 2023.
The legislation also establishes a statewide training center under DLE for the certification of all DLE officers. The training center will also be made available to federal, state and county law enforcement agencies upon their request.
The measure also appropriates $900,000 to hire individuals to create the framework for the new law enforcement department.
Rep. Mark Nakashima, a Hamakua Democrat and the House Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs chairman, said during the ceremony he was concerned, at first “that at the end of the (Ige) administration, we were undertaking such a change in state government.”
“However … in separating these two divergent purposes … and putting them into two separate departments, I see the wisdom in moving forward with this bill at this time,” Nakashima said.
The bill received the support of Attorney General Holly Shikada; Maj. General Kenneth Hara, the director of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency and state’s adjutant general and homeland security adviser; Frank Pace, administrator of the Hawaii Office of Homeland Security; Department of Public Safety Director Max Otani; John Tobon, special agent in charge of U.S. Homeland Security Investigations; and numerous sheriff’s deputies who submitted testimony.
The measure received opposition by the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers, the state’s powerful police union.
In written testimony, SHOPO President Robert “Bobby” Cavaco said the bill “will give sheriffs the authority to conduct ‘law enforcement operations and investigations throughout the state.’”
“However, the bill is silent as to what that means or what that will entail and at the same time states that the bill is not intended to ‘impair or diminish’ our officers’ responsibilities.’ What all of this means is anyone’s guess,” he added.
Also submitting opposing testimony was Daniel Hanagami, chief special investigator in the state Attorney General’s Office, who specified his testimony was as a private citizen.
“The proposed legislation offers lofty goals without real substance to achieve those goals,” Hanagami testified. “The bill does not include the county police departments as a major consulting entity and establishes the Public Safety Department as the driving force behind this bill. The Public Safety Department lacks certification, experience and expertise. The planning of the law enforcement department should have better leaders to pursue this effort.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
