R Street Testimony in Support of HI H.B. 2494, Relating to Criminal Justice Reform
Testimony from:
Jillian E. Snider, Resident Senior Fellow of Criminal Justice and Civil Liberties, R Street Institute
Testimony in Support of HI H.B. 2494, “Relating to Criminal Justice Reform.”
February 19, 2026
House Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs Committee
Chairman Tarnas and members of the committee,
My name is Jillian E. Snider, and I am a resident senior fellow of criminal justice and civil liberties at the R Street Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, public policy research organization. Our mission is to engage in policy research and outreach to promote free markets and limited, effective government in many areas, including the criminal justice system. That is why today’s hearing is of special interest to us.
In addition to my current role, I am also a Lecturer at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a retired police officer from the New York City Police Department. My career in law enforcement showed me firsthand the operational realities of arrest processing, and HB 2494 would enable Hawai’i to modernize its approach to low-level offenses by expanding the use of citations in lieu of arrest for petty misdemeanors and violations.
At its core, H.B. 2494, narrows when custodial arrest is necessary for petty misdemeanors and violations, establishing citation in lieu of arrests as the default while retaining clear, documented exceptions. The bill does not alter felony enforcement or eliminate officer discretion; it simply aligns arrest authority with risk, accountability, and efficient use of limited law enforcement and correctional resources.
The significance of this legislation lies in its impact of how scarce law enforcement resources are deployed. Officers currently spend a disproportionate amount of time processing low-level offenses, diverting attention from serious and violent crimes that pose the greatest risk to public safety. By reducing unnecessary custodial arrest, H.B. 2494 allows agencies to reallocate time and personnel toward proactive policing, investigations, and victim-centered work that more directly protects Hawai’i’s communities.
The most compelling operational argument for this legislation is time. In 2024, U.S. law enforcement made approximately 7.5 million arrests, yet only about 22 percent involved violent crime or other serious offenses—including assaults, weapons possession, sex offenses, and crimes against families—meaning nearly four out of five arrests were for non-violent, low-level offenses, underscoring why citation in lieu of arrest policies can preserve public safety while reducing unnecessary custodial arrests.[1] Hawai’i mirrors this national pattern. In 2024, even when violent crime, other assaults, weapons offenses, sex offenses, and offenses against family and children are combined, they account for approximately 16 percent of all arrests statewide, meaning more than eight in ten arrests involved low level, non-violent, or public-order offenses–exactly the category of cases where citation in lieu of arrest can yield the greatest public safety return on limited officer time.[2] This misallocation of resources directly impairs law enforcement’s capacity to prevent and solve crimes that genuinely threaten public safety.[3] As someone who has worked patrol shifts, I can attest that the hours spent transporting, booking, and processing individuals for minor offenses represent time not spent on proactive policing, community engagement, or investigating serious crime.
This operational efficiency is particularly critical given the severe workforce challenges facing law enforcement nationwide. A 2024 survey found that 70 percent of agencies reported greater hiring difficulties compared to five years ago, with dozens of the nation’s largest departments shrinking by 10 percent or more.[4] Hawai’i faces its own version of this workforce crisis, particularly in correctional facilities. A recent report by the Hawai’i Correctional System Oversight Commission documented that the state has 434 vacant positions out of 1,535 authorized officer positions across eight prisons and jails—a vacancy rate of 28 percent.[5] This chronic understaffing forces corrections officers to work mandatory 16- or 24-hour shifts, with the system paying out more than $18 million in overtime last fiscal year simply to ensure essential posts are manned.[6] The survey found that about 60 percent of staff developed serious health conditions due to job stress, with more than 40 percent of jail staff reporting depression and 8 percent seriously contemplating suicide in the past year.[7]
These correctional workforce challenges are directly relevant to H.B. 2494. Every unnecessary arrest for a petty misdemeanor or violation adds another person to Hawai’i’s already overcrowded jails, exacerbating the workload on exhausted correctional staff and consuming taxpayer resources that could be directed toward more serious public safety needs.[8]
Beyond time and resource savings, citations reduce risk of harm to both officers and citizens. More officers are injured or killed during arrests than during any other police activity, and research consistently demonstrates a strong relationship between the level of force used during an encounter and the probability of officer injury.[9] Because citations are briefer, involve less physical contact, and are less confrontational than custodial arrests, they present reduced injury risk. Jurisdictions that have reduced arrests for low-level offenses experienced overall declines in non-violent crime, not increases, demonstrating that citation programs enhance rather than compromise public safety.[10]
H.B. 2494’s approach is appropriately calibrated. The bill creates a default presumption favoring citation for low-level offenses while preserving officer discretion for circumstances where arrest is genuinely necessary. Officers retain arrest authority when the person cannot provide satisfactory identity verification, when there are reasonable grounds to believe the person will not appear in court, when outstanding warrants exist, when further police contact on the same issue is likely, when detention is necessary to prevent bodily injury, or when the offense involves driving under the influence (DUI) or domestic violence. These exceptions preserve officer discretion precisely where arrests serve legitimate purposes beyond punishment. The domestic violence and DUI exceptions are particularly important, as these situations often require immediate intervention, cooling-off periods, field sobriety testing, or victim safety measures that citations cannot provide.[11]
The evidence from states and localities that have expanded citation use is clear and consistent. When properly implemented with appropriate training, documentation, and court appearance support systems, citations enhance both public safety and law enforcement effectiveness. Jurisdictions across the country are increasingly adopting these approaches, recognizing that smart resource allocation—not simply increased enforcement—produces better public safety outcomes.[12]
H.B. 2494 represents evidence-based criminal justice policy that enhances law enforcement capacity to address serious crime, reduces unnecessary risk to officers and citizens, strengthens community-police relationships, respects individual liberty, and supports successful reintegration — all while maintaining appropriate safeguards for public safety. Given Hawai’i’s severe workforce challenges in both law enforcement and corrections, this legislation offers a practical solution that makes better use of limited personnel resources, reduces the burden on overcrowded jails, and allows officers and correctional staff to focus on genuine public safety threats rather than processing individuals for minor offenses.
I respectfully urge the committee to pass H.B. 2494 so Hawai’i’s officers and correctional staff can devote their time, energy, and resources to the serious offenses that most directly impact public safety.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Jillian E. Snider
Resident Senior Fellow, Criminal Justice and Civil Liberties
R Street Institute
jsnider@rstreet.org
[1] Table 29: “Estimated Number of Arrests, United States, 2024,” Crime in the United States 2024, Federal Bureau of Investigation. https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov.
[2] Table 69: “Arrests by State, 2024,” Crime in the United States 2024, Federal Bureau of Investigation. https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov.
[3] Jillian Snider, “Solving Crime, Protecting Communities: A Blueprint for Safer Streets,” R Street Policy Study No. 316, June 2025. https://www.rstreet.org/research/solving-crime-protecting-communities-a-blueprint-for-safer streets.
[4] Logan Seacrest and Jillian Snider, “Rebuilding the Force: Solving Policing’s Workforce Emergency,” R Street Policy Study No. 318, March 2025, p. 3. https://www.rstreet.org/research/rebuilding-the-force-solving-policings workforce-emergency.
[5] Kevin Dayton, “Report: Hawai’i Prison Guards Face ‘Unsustainable’ Working Conditions,” Honolulu Civil Beat, Jan. 22, 2025. https://www.civilbeat.org/2025/01/report-hawaii-prison-guards-face-unsustainable-working-conditions.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Tommy Johnson, “A New Jail Is Critical For Hawai’i’s Correctional System,” Honolulu Civil Beat, Aug. 8, 2025. https://www.civilbeat.org/2025/08/a-new-jail-is-critical-for-hawaiʻis-correctional-system.
[9] Rachel A. Harmon, “Why Arrest?” Michigan Law Review 115:3 (2016). https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol115/iss3/1.
[10] Maya Szilak, “Combating the Rise in Homicides by Expanding the Use of Citations in Lieu of Arrest,” R Street Policy Study No. 251, February 2022, p. 3. https://www.rstreet.org/research/combating-the-rise-in-homicides-by expanding-the-use-of-citations-in-lieu-of-arrest; David S. Abrams, “Crime in the Time of COVID,” Econofact, March 30, 2021. https://econofact.org/crime-in-the-time-of-covid; Sungwoo Cho et al., “Do Police Make Too Many Arrests? The Effect of Enforcement Pullbacks on Crime,” IZA Institute of Labor Economics Paper No. 14907, December 2021. https://docs.iza.org/dp14907.pdf.
[11] “Citation in Lieu of Arrest Model Policy,” North Carolina Dept. of Justice, July 2020, pp. 3-4. https://ncdoj.gov/wp content/uploads/2023/12/Model-Citation-Policy.pdf.
[12] Lisel Petis, “Conservative Jurisdictions Champion Diversion Efforts,” R Street Policy Study No. 252, March 2022, pp. 1-12. https://www.rstreet.org/research/conservative-jurisdictions-champion-diversion-efforts; Christi M. Smith, “When Arrest Isn’t Best: Creating A Culture of Police-Led, Pre-Arrest Diversion,” R Street Policy Short No. 118, September 2022, p. 4. https://www.rstreet.org/research/when-arrest-isnt-best-creating-a-culture-of-police led-pre-arrest-diversion.