§710-1011  Refusing to aid a law enforcement
officer.  (1)  A person commits the offense of refusing to aid a law
enforcement officer when, upon a reasonable command by a person known to him to
be a law enforcement officer, he intentionally refuses or fails to aid such law
enforcement officer, in:



(a) Effectuating or securing an arrest; or



(b) Preventing the commission by another of any
offense.



(2)  Refusing to aid a law enforcement officer
is a petty misdemeanor.



(3)  A person who complies with this section by
aiding a law enforcement officer shall not be held liable to any person for
damages resulting therefrom, provided he acted reasonably under the
circumstances known to him at the time. [L 1972, c 9, pt of §1; am L 2001, c
91, §4]



 



COMMENTARY ON §710-1011



 



  This section is not designed to allow peace officers to foist
their routine or dangerous duties upon innocent citizens.  The reasonable
context in which this aid is required precludes requests for routine and
unnecessary, as well as dangerous and unconscionable, aid.  The type of
situation which the Code envisions is the request to a citizen, by a peace
officer, to summon aid or render immediately vital information, where there is
no question of danger, incrimination, or substantial inconvenience to the
person of whom the aid is asked.  Various forms of this law may be found in the
proposed revisions of other states.[1]



  Previous Hawaii law provided for a $50 fine for refusal to
aid a peace officer, under roughly the same circumstances as those provided in
the Code.[2]  Instead, the Code imposes its lightest criminal penalty, petty
misdemeanor, for this offense.



  The waiver of civil liability in subsection (3) is both fair
and necessary.  The waiver is fair in that it is hardly equitable to order a
person to perform a useful act, on one hand, then expose the person to the
threat of civil liability, on the other.  The waiver is necessary in that it
would arguably be unreasonable to request such aid in many cases if all of the
standards of civil liability were to apply.  The person of whom aid is asked
might, therefore, be able justifiably to refuse to give it.



 



Case Notes



 



  Cited:  57 H. 390, 557 P.2d 1334.



 



__________



§710-1011 Commentary:



 



1.  See N.Y.R.P.L. §195.10; Prop. Del. Cr. Code §§730, 731;
Prop. Mich. Rev. Cr. Code §4250.



 



2.  H.R.S. §740-10.