BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY
Senator Loni Hancock, Chair A
2011-2012 Regular Session B
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AB 2383 (Ammiano) 3
As Amended May 14, 2012
Hearing date: June 12, 2012
Vehicle Code
MK:dl
VEHICLES: PUBLIC RECORDS:
ACCESS BY CERTAIN OFFICIALS
HISTORY
Source: City and County of San Francisco
Prior Legislation: None
Support: Unknown
Opposition:None known
Assembly Floor Vote: Ayes 75 - Noes 0
KEY ISSUE
SHOULD THE CITY ATTORNEY OF SAN FRANCISCO BE PERMITTED TO OBTAIN
COPIES OF FULL-FACE ENGRAVED PICTURES OR PHOTOGRAPHS OF INDIVIDUALS
DIRECTLY FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF MOTOR VEHICLES FOR THE PURPOSES OF
PERFORMING FUNCTIONS RELATED TO CITY AND COUNTY OPERATIONS?
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PURPOSE
The purpose of this bill is to allow the City Attorney of San
Francisco to obtain copies of full-face engraved pictures or
photographs of individuals directly from DMV for the purposes of
performing functions related to city and county operations.
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 §1808)
Under existing law the residential addresses of certain public
employees and their families are confidential. (Vehicle Code §
§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 §§ 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 or 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 § 1808.21(d).)
Existing law provides that the release of such confidential
information, for all other persons specified, is a misdemeanor
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and punishable by a fine of up to $5,000 and/or by up to one
year in a county jail. (Vehicle Code § 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 or 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 §1808.4 (e).)
Existing law provides that the Attorney General, district
attorneys, law enforcement agencies, city attorneys prosecuting
misdemeanors, public defenders and public defender investigators
shall have access, including, but not limited to, telephone
access, to DMV records. (Vehicle Code § 1810.5)
Existing law provides that a license shall bear a full-face
engraved picture or photograph of the licensee. The DMV shall
not, unless requested by the licensee distribute or sell the
licensee's picture or photograph or any information pertaining
to the licensee's picture or physical characteristics to any
private individual, other than the licensee, or to any firm,
co-partnership, association, or corporation. (Vehicle Code §
12800.5)
Existing law provides that all DMV records relating to the
physical or mental condition of any person, and convictions of
any offense involving the use or possession of controlled
substance not arising from circumstances involving a motor
vehicle, are confidential and not open to public inspection.
(Vehicle Code § 1808.5)
Existing law provides that the Department of Real Estate, as a
department individually, or through its staff, may obtain copies
of fullface engraved pictures or photographs of individuals
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directly form DMV for the purposes of enforcing the Real Estate
Law or the Subdivided Lands Law. (Vehicle Code § 1808.51)
This bill provides that the city attorney of a city and county
and his or her investigators for the purposes of performing
functions related to city and county operations may also obtain
copies of fullface engraved pictures or photographs of
individuals directly from DMV.
RECEIVERSHIP/OVERCROWDING CRISIS AGGRAVATION
("ROCA")
In response to the unresolved prison capacity crisis, since
early 2007 it has been the policy of the chair of the Senate
Committee on Public Safety and the Senate President pro Tem to
hold legislative proposals which could further aggravate prison
overcrowding through new or expanded felony prosecutions. Under
the resulting policy known as "ROCA" (which stands for
"Receivership/Overcrowding Crisis Aggravation"), the Committee
has held measures which create a new felony, expand the scope or
penalty of an existing felony, or otherwise increase the
application of a felony in a manner which could exacerbate the
prison overcrowding crisis by expanding the availability or
length of prison terms (such as extending the statute of
limitations for felonies or constricting statutory parole
standards). In addition, proposed expansions to the
classification of felonies enacted last year by AB 109 (the 2011
Public Safety Realignment) which may be punishable in jail and
not prison (Penal Code section 1170(h)) would be subject to ROCA
because an offender's criminal record could make the offender
ineligible for jail and therefore subject to state prison.
Under these principles, ROCA has been applied as a
content-neutral, provisional measure necessary to ensure that
the Legislature does not erode progress towards reducing prison
overcrowding by passing legislation which could increase the
prison population. ROCA will continue until prison overcrowding
is resolved.
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For the last several years, severe overcrowding in California's
prisons has been the focus of evolving and expensive litigation.
On June 30, 2005, in a class action lawsuit filed four years
earlier, the United States District Court for the Northern
District of California established a Receivership to take
control of the delivery of medical services to all California
state prisoners confined by the California Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation ("CDCR"). In December of 2006,
plaintiffs in two federal lawsuits against CDCR sought a
court-ordered limit on the prison population pursuant to the
federal Prison Litigation Reform Act. On January 12, 2010, a
three-judge federal panel issued an order requiring California
to reduce its inmate population to 137.5 percent of design
capacity -- a reduction at that time of roughly 40,000 inmates
-- within two years. The court stayed implementation of its
ruling pending the state's appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
On May 23, 2011, the United States Supreme Court upheld the
decision of the three-judge panel in its entirety, giving
California two years from the date of its ruling to reduce its
prison population to 137.5 percent of design capacity, subject
to the right of the state to seek modifications in appropriate
circumstances. Design capacity is the number of inmates a
prison can house based on one inmate per cell, single-level
bunks in dormitories, and no beds in places not designed for
housing. Current design capacity in CDCR's 33 institutions is
79,650.
On January 6, 2012, CDCR announced that California had cut
prison overcrowding by more than 11,000 inmates over the last
six months, a reduction largely accomplished by the passage of
Assembly Bill 109. Under the prisoner-reduction order, the
inmate population in California's 33 prisons must be no more
than the following:
167 percent of design capacity by December 27, 2011
(133,016 inmates);
155 percent by June 27, 2012;
147 percent by December 27, 2012; and
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137.5 percent by June 27, 2013.
This bill does not aggravate the prison overcrowding crisis
described above under ROCA.
COMMENTS
1. Need for This Bill
According to the author:
The San Francisco City Attorney's Office had been
classified by the DMV to have full access to records at
the law enforcement level. This level of access was in
effect since 1990 without incident or challenge. The
City Attorney's Office operated with this level of
access for twenty-one years and strictly complied with
all DMV security protocols. In 2011, the DMV
reclassified the City Attorney's Office access to an
access level limited to address and phone data.
Prior to 2011, the San Francisco City Attorney's office
utilized DMV records in a number of ways to fulfill
their role as legal counsel for all city departments
and agencies. The San Francisco City Attorney's Office
serves as legal counsel for all city departments and
agencies, including those that operate with county
functions. In the course of executing duties in its
unique role, the City Attorney's Office accesses DMV
records to more effectively personally serve parents in
child dependency cases as required by state law (see
Welfare and Institutions Code sec. 300 et.seq.) for the
County Human Services Agency, establish security
protocols for threatened employees, and identify
individuals in fraud cases. AB 2383 restores the San
Francisco City Attorney's access to DMV records. This
bill will authorize the San Francisco City Attorney's
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Office to have the same access to DMB records as the
Department of Real Estate.
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2. Access to DMV Photos
Existing law generally prohibits access to DMV records; however,
statute excepts from this prohibition law enforcement officials,
which statute identifies as the Attorney General, district
attorneys, law enforcement agencies and city attorneys
prosecuting misdemeanor violations of state law upon
authorization of a district attorney and makes exception for
public defenders and public defender investigators. There is
also an exemption for the Department of Real Estate to obtain
copies of fullface photographs of people from DMV.
The San Francisco City Attorney previously had access to DMV
files. However, last year, following an internal audit, DMV
determined the access, which the city attorney used for purposes
other than prosecution of criminal actions, was not appropriate
and revoked the city attorney's access. DMV notes that the city
attorney can still access DMV records by going through the
city's law enforcement agencies. This bill would allow the San
Francisco City Attorney to get photographs from DMV. According
the background from the author, the San Francisco City Attorney
uses DMV photographs in the following circumstances:
To serve the legal process for the Human Services
Agency. The City Attorney's office often serves parents
with notice of dependency hearings, which are often
contentious hearings. The DMV license photos are
particularly useful in serving parents who may be trying to
evade the process.
To establish a security protocol for a threatened
employee. DMV license photos are heavily relied upon to
create an effective DO NOT ADMIT notice to protect the
safety of an employee at the workplace while litigators
apply for restraining orders.
To conduct surveillance on individuals whose activities
are under investigation. When investigating an employee or
private individuals for wrongdoing of all kinds, the DMV
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license photos identify the appearance of the person who is
not known. Many surveillance assignments pertain to workers
compensation fraud and a multitude of personal injury
claimants and plaintiffs who falsely claim injury or a
degree of injury. Surveillance is the only tool to
establish the falsehood of their representation. DMV
license photos are critical in performing surveillance in
these cases.
To investigate facts and allegations pertinent to
litigation filed against city and county departments,
employees, public officials, and agencies. In this
capacity, DMV license photos are used to investigate the
conduct and commercial activities of private businesses and
individuals in determining whether they have harmed the
city and county or broken the laws, and therefore made
themselves subject to penalties in litigation or other
enforcement proceedings.
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