BILL ANALYSIS
SB 202
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Date of Hearing: July 15, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Kevin De Leon, Chair
SB 202 (Harman) - As Amended: July 1, 2009
Policy Committee: Business and
Professions Vote: 10 - 0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill requires private investigators (PIs), as a condition
of license renewal, to complete 12 hours of continuing education
(CE) in privacy rights, professional ethics, recent legal
developments, and other subjects related to the profession, and
makes other regulatory changes, as specified. Specifically, this
bill:
1)Requires, effective January 1, 2013, every licensed PI to
complete 12 hours of continuing education in order to renew
his or her license every two years.
2)Requires the Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) to develop a
procedure for approving continuing education providers (CEP)
and requires CEPs to obtain approval from DCA to provide
continuing education courses.
3)Authorizes DCA to charge a fee, not exceeding $20 per course,
for participating CEPs to cover the cost of implementing the
approval program for CEPs and the cost of auditing CEPs.
4)Increases the license fees charged to PIs from $175 to $195
for initital licensure and $124 to $145 for license renewal.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)On-going costs for the DCA in excess of $200,000 per year from
the Private Investigator Fund for the workload associated with
DCA enforcing the provisions of this legislation and
maintaining the continuing education program.
SB 202
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2)On-going revenue of approximately $180,000 per year due to the
increased fees contained in this legislation.
COMMENTS
1)Rationale . This legislation requires licensed investigators to
obtain 12 hours of CE every two years. It would also increase
the biennial licensure fee by $20 to help defray the costs of
administering the new requirements. The author is concerned
there is no current requirement for investigators to remain
up-to-date with current privacy laws and other professional
standards. Consequently, the author asserts, many of the
almost 10,000 licensed investigators may not be aware of the
latest developments and legal requirements applicable to the
industry.
According to the sponsor, California Association of Licensed
Investigators, Inc., this bill would "benefit consumers by
ensuring that when they hire a California-licensed PI, the
person they hire will be knowledgeable in the areas of privacy
rights, ethics, and updates in legal and technological
developments. It is important that consumers who hire
licensed PIs have some measure of assurance that the person
they engage knows the privacy laws that apply to the
investigation. There are many important privacy-related laws
that have been enacted since the vast majority of PIs received
their licenses. The privacy laws address the protection of
sensitive personal information, prohibitions against false
impersonation, and measures to prevent identity theft.
Neither the preparation for a state license, nor the testing
that is conducted for a license, address any of these laws."
2)Opposition . In opposition to the legislation, Capitol City
Investigations argues, "The Bureau presently has authority to
require and test in two of the three mandated subjects
contained in SB 202, yet it hasn't? Data published by the
Bureau reflects that for the four-year period between 2005 and
2008, only one disciplinary citation was issued to a PI which
was in 2005. Four licensed PIs have been placed on
disciplinary probation during this same four-year period; two
in 2005, one in 2006, one in 2007 and none in 2008. If
there's any trend to extrapolate from these numbers, there has
been significant improvement among the state's 9,993 licensed
and professional PIs."
SB 202
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Analysis Prepared by : Julie Salley-Gray / APPR. / (916)
319-2081