Unmask the State | Stop Anonymous Policing | Support SB2203

The Libertarian Party of Hawaii strongly supports Senate Bill 2203 (SD 2), which establishes the offense of a law enforcement officer wearing a mask or facial covering that conceals their identity while interacting with the public. This is a direct defense of core constitutional principles: due process, accountability under the law, and the fundamental right of free people to know who is exercising state power against them.

Due Process Requires Transparency

The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, and the parallel due-process guarantees in the Hawaii Constitution (Article I, Sections 5 and 6), are not abstract slogans. They mean that when the government deprives a person of liberty or property through arrest, search, seizure, or detention that person must have a meaningful opportunity to challenge the action.

How can you exercise that right if you cannot identify the person who arrested you, searched your vehicle, or issued the citation? A masked officer is, for all practical purposes, an anonymous one.

Anonymity destroys the chain of accountability that due process demands:

• You cannot file an accurate internal affairs complaint.

• You cannot name the correct defendant in a civil-rights lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

• You cannot effectively cross-examine the officer in court when their face was hidden at the time of the encounter.

Unidentifiable enforcement turns due process into a guessing game and police encounters into a crap shoot with your freedom as the currency to gamble.. 

A Bulwark Against Abuse of Power

Libertarians have long warned that concentrated government power, shielded from scrutiny, inevitably leads to overreach. History is littered with examples of secret police, unmarked vans, or agents without badges that allowed the absence of visible identity to enable tyranny. We reject these tactics on principle.

Requiring law enforcement officers to show their faces while dealing with the public is not “anti-police.” It is pro-rule-of-law. It draws a bright line between legitimate authority and the tactics of authoritarian regimes. Officers who act for the people and under color of law must be willing to stand behind their actions in the light of day, and answer to the individuals they serve.

SB2203 contains commonsense exceptions for genuine undercover operations and for situations where an unmasked officer from the same agency is present and visible. It also excludes legitimate protective equipment. The bill targets only the unnecessary concealment of identity during ordinary public interactions which is the exact scenario where accountability matters most.

Liberty Demands Visibility

Opponents may argue that this is an officer safety issue, but these are our public servants. It is in the best interest of public safety to deal with those they serve in the sunlight. If they have nothing to hide, they need no disguise.

Hawaii’s own constitution declares that “no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law” and that the government exists to protect individual rights, not to obscure them. When state or federal agents operate in our communities, Hawai‘i law should reinforce those vital protections. If our law enforcement is exercising coercive power over a citizen on Hawaii soil, the citizen has a right to know who they are and to hold them accountable.

Help Us Support SB2203:

Support SB2203. Its passage is a small but vital step toward restoring the foundational American and Hawaiian principle that government derives its just powers from the consent of the governed; a consent that cannot be given to invisible hands. 

Take action by following these two steps:

1. Click on the hyperlink to familiarize yourself with the bill text: Support SB2203 

2. Testify. Our simple instructions make the process easy!

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