The establishment of an independent review board to investigate deaths of people while in law enforcement custody passed a state Senate committee Tuesday.

Senate Bill 2196 would require the board, which would be placed in the Hawaii Attorney General’s Office, to investigate shootings involving a law enforcement officer.

But the bill will be amended to incorporate concerns of the AG’s office — specifically, a change of language so that it regards officers involved in “death or serious bodily injury.”

The AG also wants to make clear how the legislation would apply to criminal as well as administrative investigations, which might be conducted at the same time. Deputy Attorney Landon Murata said there are separate rules governing each process, and he said it would be “problematic” if the bill applied to criminal investigations.

Sen. Will Espero, who introduced SB 2196, told Murata that legislators want transparency, accountability and independence in investigations, “the key being independence.”

Sen. Roz Baker pointed to the well-publicized example of a man shot by Chicago police, an incident videotaped but not released to the public until much later. Baker said she did not want to see Hawaii face a similar controversy.

Murata now has two days to come up with acceptable language, because Friday is the “first lateral” deadline for all bills with more than one committee referral in its originating chamber. If a bill has not passed all its committee hearings save the final one by then, it is considered dead.

The review board bill unanimously passed the Senate Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs Committee. But it was deferred by Judiciary and Labor, which rescheduled decision making for Wednesday.

If the second committee gives it a green light, SB 2196 will have made Friday’s deadline to make it to its final Senate committee, Ways and Means.

The review board bill was opposed by the Maui County Department of the Prosecuting Attorney but supported by Common Cause Hawaii, which said, “We are at a tipping point, where the public is vocally demanding that law enforcement officers must follow the laws they enforce.”

Two other measures involving law enforcement and accountability are advancing as well at the Legislature.

Senate Bill 2411 establishes requirements for body-worn cameras and vehicle cameras for county police departments. The bill passed Public Safety on Wednesday but was amended so that each county police department could adopt written policies for the cameras following guidelines detailed in House Bill 1738.

SB 2411 now awaits a final, joint hearing in before the Senate Judiciary and Labor and Ways and Means, and it has until early March for that to happen. The fact that it was introduced by the chair of Judiciary and Labor, Sen. Gil Keith-Agaran, suggests that it might well receive a hearing.

The body cameras bill was opposed by the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers, but supported by the ACLU of Hawaii. The Kauai Police Department also opposed the bill, but mainly because it has established its own guidelines.

A third law-enforcement measure, Senate Bill 2304, would require the attorney general to create and maintain a public database of all law enforcement officers “who have been terminated from their law enforcement positions, or forced to resign due to criminal activity, improper behavior, or misconduct.”

SB 2304, which was introduced by Espero and has Keith-Agaran as a backer, passed Public Safety on Tuesday with amendments from the AG ensuring that the bill conforms with the state’s Uniform Information Practices Act on public access to government records.

The bill would also require county police departments, the state Department of Public Safety, the Department of Transportation and the Department of Land and Natural Resources to report all terminations or forced resignations of law enforcement officers to the attorney general within 30 days.

SB 2304 also needs to be heard at a joint Judiciary and Labor and Ways and Means hearing, also by the first week in March.

The database bill is supported by the ACLU, which said, “This bill, if enacted, would increase law enforcement transparency and accountability, and thereby help to improve the public’s trust of our police officers.”