State v. Barros

Opinion of

The express authority included in Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS) § 803-6 (1993) to conduct a warrant check when the infi-aetion is a violation, rests on the statute’s facial premise that a police officer has discretion to either arrest or to cite a pei-son who commits a violation and may, accordingly, conduct the check in aid of that decision. Because, in my view, a “jaywalking” violation is not an arrestable infraction either under our statutes or our state constitution, and, thus, the justification for a warrant cheek detention—to enable the officer to choose between making an…