BILL ANALYSIS ------------------------------------------------------------ |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 938| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |1020 N Street, Suite 524 | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ------------------------------------------------------------ UNFINISHED BUSINESS Bill No: SB 938 Author: Huff (R) Amended: 8/16/10 Vote: 21 SENATE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE : 6-0, 4/13/10 AYES: Leno, Cogdill, Cedillo, Huff, Steinberg, Wright NO VOTE RECORDED: Hancock SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8 SENATE FLOOR : 34-0, 5/03/10 AYES: Aanestad, Ashburn, Cedillo, Cogdill, Corbett, Correa, Cox, Denham, DeSaulnier, Ducheny, Dutton, Florez, Hancock, Harman, Hollingsworth, Huff, Kehoe, Leno, Liu, Lowenthal, Negrete McLeod, Oropeza, Padilla, Pavley, Price, Romero, Runner, Simitian, Strickland, Walters, Wolk, Wright, Wyland, Yee NO VOTE RECORDED: Alquist, Calderon, Steinberg, Wiggins, Vacancy, Vacancy ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 75-0, 8/18/10 - See last page for vote SUBJECT : Department of Motor Vehicles: records: confidentiality SOURCE : Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department DIGEST : This bill exempts from the enhanced Department of Motor Vehicles confidentiality provisions the spouse or CONTINUED SB 938 Page 2 child of a listed person if that spouse or child has been convicted of a crime and is on active probation or parole. Assembly Amendments (1) repeals the requirement that the California Highway Patrol utilize the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System when conducting background checks on tow truck drivers and employers; (2) add clarifying language requesting information at the time a request is made for the Department of Motor Vehicle exemption ANALYSIS : Existing law provides except where a specific provision of law prohibits the disclosure of records or information or provides for confidentiality, all records of the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) relating to the registration of vehicles, other information contained on an application for a driver's license, abstracts of convictions, and abstracts of accident reports required to be sent to DMV in Sacramento, except for abstracts of accidents where, in the opinion of a reporting officer, another individual was at fault, shall be open to public inspection during office hours. All abstracts of accident reports shall be available to law enforcement agencies and courts of competent jurisdiction. (Vehicle Code Section 1808.) Under existing law, the residential addresses of certain public employees and their families are confidential. (Vehicle Code Sections 1808.4 and 1808.6 - began in 1977.) Existing law states that all residence addresses in any record of the DMV are confidential and shall not be disclosed to any person, except a court, law enforcement agency, or other governmental agency, or as authorized in section 1808.22 of the Vehicle Code. (Vehicle Code Sections 1808.21 - added in 1989.) Existing law states that any person may seek suppression of any DMV registration or driver's license record if he or she can show that he/she is the subject of stalking or a threat of death or great bodily injury. The suppression will be for a period of one year renewable for two more, one-year periods. (Vehicle Code Section 1808.21(d).) SB 938 Page 3 Existing law provides that the release of such confidential information, for all other persons specified, is a misdemeanor and punishable by a fine of up to $5,000 and/or by up to one year in a county jail. (Vehicle Code Section 1808.45.) Existing law provides that a record of DMV containing a confidential home address shall be open to public inspection as provided in Vehicle Code Section 1808 if the address is completely obliterated or otherwise removed from the record. The home address shall be withheld from public inspection for three years following the termination of office or employment except with respect to a retired peace officer, his/her home address shall be withheld from public inspection permanently upon request of confidentiality at the time the information would otherwise be opened. (Vehicle Code Section 1808.4 (e).) Existing law provides that the spouse or child of a person listed in Vehicle Code Section 1808.4 and the surviving spouse or child of a peace officer who has died in the line of duty regardless of their place of residence shall also have enhanced confidentiality. (Vehicle Code Section 1808.4(a)(24).) This bill: 1. Excludes from the categories of individuals whose home addresses within the records of the DMV are afforded enhanced confidentiality, the spouses and children of peace officers and other enumerated public officials, if those spouses or children have been convicted of crimes and are on active parole or probation. 2. Specifies that neither the listed person's employer nor DMV is responsible for verifying that such a spouse or child has been convicted of a crime and is not on active parole or probation. 3. Requires persons requesting confidentiality for their spouse or child, on or after January 1, 2011, to declare at the time of that request whether the spouse or child has been convicted of a crime and is on active parole or probation. SB 938 Page 4 4. Repeals the requirement that the California Highway Patrol utilize the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System when conducting background checks on tow truck drivers and employers. Background DMV Confidentiality . Vehicle Code section 1808.4 was added by statute in 1977 to provide confidentiality of home addresses to specified public employees and their families. In 1989, Vehicle Code section 1808.21 was added to make all residence addresses confidential within the DMV files. Vehicle Code section 1808.21(a) states the following: The residence address in any record of the department is confidential and cannot be disclosed to any person except a court, law enforcement agency, or other governmental agency, or as authorized in Section 1808.22 or 1808.23. This section was further amended in 1994 to allow individuals under specific circumstances to request that their entire records be suppressed. Any individual who is the subject of stalking or who is experiencing a threat of death or great bodily injury to his/her person may request their entire record to be suppressed under this section. Upon suppression of a record, each request for information about that record has to be authorized by the subject of the record or verified as legitimate by other investigative means by the DMV before the information is released. A record is suppressed for a one-year period. At the end of the one-year period, the suppression is continued for a period determined by the department and if the person submits verification acceptable to the department that he or she continues to have reasonable cause to believe that he or she is the subject of stalking or that there exists a threat of death or great bodily injury to his/her person. According to the DMV, however, all residence addresses are suppressed and only persons authorized by statute can SB 938 Page 5 access this information. Under sections 1808.4 and 1808.6 the home addresses of specific individuals are suppressed and can only be accessed through the Confidential Records Unit of the DMV while under section 1808.21, the residence address portion of all individuals' records are suppressed but can be accessed by a court, law enforcement agency, or other governmental agency or other authorized persons. FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes Local: No SUPPORT : (Verified 8/18/10) Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (source) Association for Los Angles Deputy Sheriffs California State Sheriffs' Association Chief Probation Officers of California San Bernardino County Sheriff's Office ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office, existing law allows law enforcement and public officials who may become targets to protect their home address from disclosure, keeping their address confidential when police run a license plate check. Confidentiality is rightly extended to children, spouses and surviving spouses of these individuals. However, there is no provision to exempt those who have a criminal record. The Lose Angeles County Sheriff's Station recently had a reserve deputy who listed his adult son as one of the persons who is covered under DMV confidentiality. Although the son had served county jail and state prison time, when he was stopped by the deputies and they ran the vehicle plates, the return showed the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department address, indicating the individual had confidentiality allowances. This situation presented a critical officer safety issue because the convicted criminal could not be identified under DMV confidentiality privileges; officers were unaware SB 938 Page 6 they were dealing with a convicted criminal. When a license check at a routine traffic stop turns up as confidential, deputies naturally assume they are in a safe situation. Allowing convicted criminals to fall under confidentiality blindly puts law enforcement in harms way. Confidentiality was intended to protect some public officials and their families, not to provide a shroud from criminals who are on supervised release. ASSEMBLY FLOOR : AYES: Adams, Ammiano, Anderson, Arambula, Bass, Beall, Bill Berryhill, Tom Berryhill, Block, Blumenfield, Bradford, Brownley, Buchanan, Caballero, Carter, Chesbro, Conway, Cook, Coto, Davis, De La Torre, De Leon, DeVore, Eng, Feuer, Fletcher, Fong, Fuentes, Fuller, Furutani, Gaines, Galgiani, Garrick, Gatto, Gilmore, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Hayashi, Hernandez, Hill, Huber, Huffman, Jeffries, Jones, Knight, Lieu, Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Mendoza, Miller, Monning, Nava, Nestande, Niello, Nielsen, Norby, V. Manuel Perez, Portantino, Ruskin, Salas, Saldana, Silva, Skinner, Smyth, Solorio, Audra Strickland, Swanson, Torlakson, Torres, Torrico, Tran, Villines, Yamada, John A. Perez NO VOTE RECORDED: Blakeslee, Charles Calderon, Evans, Logue, Vacancy RJG:do 8/18/10 Senate Floor Analyses SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE **** END ****