Governor Hosts Bill-Signing Party: Police Misconduct, Energy Management Top List
Abercrombie signed 16 bills into law Friday, including banning revenge porn and prohibiting police officers from having sex with prostitutes.
Police chiefs in Hawaii will聽have to tell the Legislature how many officers were suspended or fired in a given year and the status of any disciplinary action, thanks to a bill the governor signed into law Friday.
The big boost to transparency comes after聽a Civil Beat series in 2013, In The Name of the Law, which scrutinized the secrecy and lack of accountability surrounding police misconduct.
In all, Gov. Neil Abercrombie signed 16 bills Friday in聽the ceremonial room at his Capitol office, including those relating to revenge porn聽and energy management.
Here are some of them:
() gives more transparency to police misconduct cases by lengthening the retention time of disciplinary records and increasing detail in annual reports.
The crackdown on bad cop behavior continues with 聽that specifically聽prohibits law officers from having聽sex with prostitutes. It also adds time for repeat offenders and increases the minimum fine for soliciting sex from a minor from $2,000 to $5,000.
makes it illegal and a first degree violation of privacy聽to knowingly聽defame another person by revealing聽images of them in the聽nude or聽engaging in a sexual act without their consent, a type of retaliation known as revenge porn.
聽creates the Human Trafficking Victim Services Fund administered by the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations and imposes penalties on those guilty of聽human trafficking.
聽(Habitual Property Crime) adds a minimum one-year sentence to those who have committed a habitual property crime. The bill, backed by Rep. Chris Lee,聽aims to address the problem of people being repeatedly victimized by property crime.
(Statutes of Limitations for Sexual Assault) was proposed by the Women’s Legislative Caucus, a group comprised of all the women in the state House and Senate. The bill removes the statutes of limitations for minors who are victims of sexual assault and allows them to bring charges against their abuser at any time. It聽“extends the sunset date to allow a victim of child sexual abuse to bring a civil action against victim’s abuser or an entity, except for the state or counties, if the statute of limitations for filing a civil claim has lapsed.”
dictates the responsibilities of the Public Utilities Commission chairperson with regards to hiring and retention of staff. The chairperson聽has ultimate聽authority in the appointment and employment of their staff and the bill聽also sets the salary for the chairperson as being 87 percent of the salary of the director of Human Resources Development and the commissioners’ salaries are set at 95 percent of the chairperson’s salary.
聽(Modernization of Hawaii’s Electric System)聽appropriates funds聽so that聽the Public Utilities Commission聽 with聽modernizing Hawaii’s electric grid system.聽 The bill聽calls on the Public Utilities Commission to聽address the technical and economic issues that will be associated with聽changing system.
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