A Senate committee on Wednesday deferred a measure that would have required police commissions to create programs on cultural competency, implicit bias, and racial and ethnic sensitivity.
Senate Bill 2003 would have also ensured that all full-time officers receive crisis intervention training related to interaction with people with mental disabilities.
Sen. Glenn Wakai, who chairs the Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs Committee, said during a hearing that the committee deferred the measure due to police departments' existing and similar training.
Sen. Stanely Chang introduced the measure, citing that people with "untreated mental illness are 16 times more likely to be killed during a police encounter."
"We think that this type of training is a tool to reduce the incidence of people being killed in encounters with the police and to divert them away from the criminal justice system," Chang told HPR.
"While the bill has been deferred, I'm hopeful that the county police departments will be able to improve their training to reduce the likelihood of lethal encounters with police."
The measure received a majority of support. Those who opposed stated that police commissions have no authority to implement such a policy and that it's the police chiefs and their staff's responsibility.
Donn Manzano, acting captain of the training division at the Honolulu Police Department, said in written testimony that he supported the bill's intent. He noted that the department annually trains its officers on implicit bias and bias-based profiling, including racial and ethnic sensitivity.
"Since 2022, each graduating recruit class has received eight hours of certified training in mental health first aid, which covers the proposed areas of instruction in the bill," Manzano wrote.
The HPD has concerns regarding the language of the bill setting specific hours for training. The training hours vary on the curriculum used, which includes those provided by the City and County of Honolulu and nationally recognized training.
The Hawaiʻi American Civil Liberties Union supported the measure, suggesting an alternative crisis response is "preferable to policing to assist with those experiencing mental illness and/or homelessness."
"Hawaiʻi's ongoing housing crisis continues to lead our policymakers to criminalize those in poverty with burdensome regulation and exclusion ... This sadly includes the substantial percentage of Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders and those struggling with mental illness," ACLU stated.
