Citizens’ concern with crime is in the news, and Hawaii’s mayors have heard the alert: All four county mayors turned out Wednesday to ask for a veto of House Bill 1567, which does away with bail altogether for certain nonviolent crimes.

Hawaii’s bail and criminal justice system can and should be improved, but this bill goes too far in eliminating bail entirely for some offenses that are most troublesome to communities, taking away judges’ discretion to assess whether a defendant should face more hurdles to walking free before trial. Gov. David Ige should veto it.