SB921 Summary

• Appropriates funds to establish one permanent full-time Hawaiian culture attorney position within the Department of the Attorney General with expertise in Hawaiian language, Hawaiian culture, and Hawaiian shoreline public access rights.

• Modifies Law Enforcement Standards Board membership to allow designees of ex officio members and increases law enforcement officer members from two to five (one from each county and one from the state), while establishing four-year terms instead of three-year terms for appointed members.

• Requires at least two of four public board members to have specialized qualifications in criminal justice, law, or related expertise, and removes the prohibition on county police department experience as a qualification.

• Adds duties for the board to consider studies on consolidating state law enforcement activities and to conduct its own evaluation study on efficiently satisfying its legal obligations.

• Appropriates $275,000 to the Law Enforcement Standards Board special fund for fiscal year 2019-2020 to support an administrator position, clerical position, and operational costs; delays certain board provisions to take effect July 1, 2023.