The state is looking at moving the Sheriff Division from the state Department of Public Safety to correct some of the problems highlighted last year in a scathing audit of the division.

On Monday, Gov. Neil Abercrombie signed into law Act 215, which creates a task force that will look at whether the Sheriff Division would be better off as its own department. If it is determined that a separate department is needed, then the task force will come up with a plan of separation.

The group, which will be led by the state sheriff, must turn over its findings to the state Legislature in the 2012 session.

The Sheriff Division, which has about 300 deputies, was criticized in a 2010 state audit that claimed the Department of Public Safety’s lax leadership and the division’s equipment problems might put public safety at risk.

The audit cited the lack of training for deputy sheriffs, no guidance from Public Safety and other problems such as old vehicles, outdated body armor and staff shortages.

The report said that since the division was transferred to Public Safety in 1989, it has been "saddled with an ill-defined role and a lack of mission clarity."

Since merging with Public Safety, the division’s responsibilities expanded to include drug enforcement, illegal immigration, homeland security, fugitive arrests, criminal investigations, eviction proceedings and traffic enforcement, the report said.

State Sen. Will Espero, chairman of the Public Safety, Military and Intergovernmental Affairs Committee, said he has heard from deputies who feel they are the "stepchild" of the department. He said their concerns stem from most of the Department of Public Safety’s budget going to the department’s Corrections Division, which oversees the state prisons.

Espero (D, Ewa-Kapolei-Ewa Beach) said creating a separate department would improve morale and help with getting national accreditation, which was mandated by Act 111, signed by the governor in June.

Still, Espero estimated it would take at least three years before a separate Sheriff Department could be created.

"This (Act 215) is the first step if we are going to consider it," he said.

Keith Kamita, deputy director of law enforcement in the department, did not return several calls for comment.

Randy Perreira, executive director of the Hawaii Government Employees Association, which represents sheriff deputies, said he also doesn’t expect a separate department to be created any time soon, because of the budget.

He said HGEA supported the bill to highlight concerns of law enforcement officers that aren’t being addressed and possibly look at creating a state law enforcement department that brings together officers from different departments, such as the sheriffs, the Department of Land and Natural Resources’s law enforcement arm and Harbor Police from the Department of Transportation.