Security at Hawaii’s state Capitol ramps up amid growing safety concerns

Public entry to Hawaii’s state Capitol this year is going to be more like accessing an airport terminal or getting into a courthouse.

State officials are beefing up security at Hawaii’s top government building with additions that include metal detector scans for visitors and bag X-ray machines as the 2024 session of the Legislature nears its Jan. 17 opening.

Walk-through metal detectors were installed at three designated public entrances to the building on Dec. 18, and each one is staffed by two unarmed private security guards equipped with hand-held metal detection wands.

More security enhancements are still to be implemented, such as installing the bag X-ray machines at the three security checkpoints and eliminating public parking under the Capitol where driveway boom gates with electronic access panels have been installed.

New public parking is planned across from the Capitol next to the state Department of Health.

The security changes are receiving mixed responses among lawmakers as well as visitors, some of whom cite the need to respond to more violent incidents in recent years at government buildings on the mainland, while others say the essence of the Capitol’s design as an open and welcoming place for the people is being infringed.

Keith Regan, director of the state Department of Accounting and General Services which procured the equipment and staffing for the enhanced security measures, said in August that the changes were partly a result of numerous discussions with officials from the new state Department of Law Enforcement, which has deputy sheriffs stationed inside the Capitol.

“Those discussions led to the development of the plan to roll out enhanced security at the Capitol,” Regan said in a statement to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “There have been other factors that have led to the rollout of the metal detectors which includes recommendations from tenants and the Sheriffs.”

At the Capitol on Wednesday, Tani Kagesa navigated the metal detector check on the way to a meeting. “I feel like I’m at the airport,” she said.

Leslie Gohier, who passed through the new setup on her way to visit her grandson, Rep. Darius Kila (D, Nanakuli-Maili), said one part of her is surprised that the elevated security measures are necessary while another part is surprised that they weren’t implemented sooner.

Gohier also said she felt no increased sense of personal safety being at the Capitol under heavier guard, but she also understands how others might feel safer.

“It’s fine if they feel more secure having it,” she said.

Rep. Sam Kong (D, Aiea-Waimalu) isn’t a fan of the metal detectors being installed 55 years after the opening of the Capitol, which houses the Legislature as well as the governor’s office, and was designed in part to convey a sense of welcoming the public with openness.

“It’s overkill,” Kong said. “It’s not needed. What happened to the Aloha State? I want people to come see me.”

Rep. Gene Ward (R, Hawaii Kai-Kalama Valley) regards the elevated security as far overdue.

“Security at our Hawaii State Capitol has long been subpar to that of other states,” Ward said in a statement after the Dec. 18 date for metal detector screening was announced. “It is about time we make improvements that today will alleviate fears and one day may save lives.”

Long push

Ward, who has served in the Legislature for nearly two decades, has pushed for metal detectors and other more intense security measures at the Capitol over several years through legislation that never received public hearings by leadership dominated by Democrats.

One such measure, House Bill 2685 in 2016, noted that 28 other states at the time had walk-through metal detectors at the public entrances of their capitol buildings.

In 2021, Ward introduced HB 854 in an effort to screen entrants for weapons and contraband at controlled access points using private security, to remove public parking under the Capitol and to erect barriers preventing unauthorized vehicles from accessing the Capitol rotunda.

The bill said such measures were necessary in light of national civil unrest, demonstrated by riots, protests, and armed marches at state and federal government facilities. The bill also specifically referenced two public safety incidents — the 1995 truck bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City and a Hawaii deputy sheriff fatally shooting an intoxicated person near the Capitol rotunda during a physical struggle in 2019 — as examples of why security enhancements were needed.

“The Legislature finds that while the Hawaii State Capitol’s architecture was designed with the intent of openness and ease of public access, it must be moderated with said security measures to protect public safety while keeping our democratic system operating in the safest possible manner,” the bill stated.

HB 854 from 2021 didn’t get a hearing. Neither did two similar bills in 2023 that included one introduced by Reps. Kanani Souza (R, Kapolei-Makakilo), Diamond Garcia (R, Ewa-Kapolei) and Ward with Andrew Garrett (D, Manoa) signing on as a sponsor.

Though the bills didn’t get hearings, pressure from more lawmakers to elevate security at the Capitol was mounting.

Expanding security

Private security guards stationed at Capitol entrances appeared in March 2022 to enforce a coronavirus vaccination or negative test requirement, but remained after that requirement was dropped shortly thereafter. The guards, hired with federal coronavirus relief funding, for the past two years have required visitors to show an ID to enter the building.

During a January 2023 legislative briefing, Rep. Lisa Kitagawa (D, Kaaawa-Kahaluu-Kaneohe) asked Regan, who had just been named by Gov. Josh Green to head DAGS, about metal detectors DAGS had already acquired using federal coronavirus relief funds but hadn’t deployed.

“We are an open Capitol, and that always has sort of been on people’s minds especially last year at the nation’s Capitol with what happened,” Kitagawa said. “How do we improve safety here at the Capitol?”

Regan replied, “It’s obvious that we need to do something more significant here in this facility. … We understand this is a public facility. We have to allow the public to be able to come in here, but we also have to protect the public and we have to protect our legislators and those that work in this building.”

According to DAGS, $359,886 in federal funding covered the private security costs at the Capitol for about 11 months through June 30, 2023.

The current cost for the unarmed security guard services contract with Arekat Pacific Security Inc., doing business as API Security, is $1.5 million and includes screening services at the Capitol and at the state Department of Taxation plus roving patrols 24 hours every day in the capitol district, according to DAGS.

Hawaii now has joined 37 other states with metal detection screening at their capitol buildings, the agency said.

Establishing the new screening operation, however, has been problematic.

Bumpy rollout

Initially, DAGS announced that the metal detection would be added to security at the Capitol in July. This was delayed to August, and then to December.

On Wednesday, guards at one entry were checking IDs and bags. At another, they were checking IDs but not bags. And at the third security station, neither bags nor IDs were checked.

The ineffective screening took place several hours after some Hawaii senators received emails claiming that a bomb had been placed in the building, which turned out to be part of a multistate bomb threat hoax.

No one at DAGS was available in the last few days to comment on the deployment of the enhanced security measures, including when the bag X-ray machines will be added or when the parking change will be made.

House Speaker Scott Saiki (D, Ala Moana-Kakaako-­Downtown) supports the security enhancements being rolled out at the Capitol and would like to see even more.

Saiki said the building is the only state Capitol in the country without a comprehensive security plan.

“I get it that our state Capitol building was designed and built to be open and accessible to the public, but that was a design that was formulated in the 1960s,” he said. “Times have changed. The modern world, unfortunately, is not as safe as before.”

In addition to the changes being implemented now, Saiki would like to see street-level vehicle barriers and heightened public visibility of sheriff deputies around the building.

“We need to ensure that the state Capitol is safe for staff and visitors,” he said. “That’s the bottom line. People who are at the Capitol building need to be assured that it is a safe place.”