BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                  AB 2221
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          CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
          AB 2221 (Block)
          As Amended  August 6, 2012
          Majority vote
           
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          |ASSEMBLY:  |75-0 |(May 14, 2012)  |SENATE: |36-0 |(August 13,    |
          |           |     |                |        |     |2012)          |
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           Original Committee Reference:    PUB. S.  

           SUMMARY  :  Adds prosecutors and public defenders to the list of 
          professionals whose firearm licenses and license applications 
          are not fully required to be disclosed as public records under 
          the California Public Records Act (PRA).  

           The Senate amendments  add clarifying language that the 
          provisions of this bill are not intended to supercede amendments 
          to existing law that were added by the Governor's Reorganization 
          Plan No. 2 of 2012, which took effect July 3, 2012.
           
          EXISTING LAW  : 

          1)States that public records are open to inspection at all times 
            during the office hours of the state or local agency and every 
            person has a right to inspect any public record, except as 
            provided.  Any reasonably segregable portion of a record shall 
            be available for inspection by any person requesting the 
            record after deletion of the portions that are exempted by 
            law.  

          2)Declares legislative intent to assist members of the public 
            and state and local agencies in identifying exemptions to the 
            California PRA.  It is the intent of the Legislature that, 
            after January 1, 1999, each addition or amendment to a statute 
            that exempts from disclosure any information contained in a 
            public record shall be listed and described in this article 
            pursuant to a bill authorized by a standing committee of the 
            Legislature to be introduced during the first year of each 
            session of the Legislature.  The statutes listed in this 
            article may operate to exempt certain records, or portions 
            thereof, from disclosure.  The statutes listed and described 
            may not be inclusive of all exemptions.  The listing of a 
            statute in this article does not itself create an exemption.  








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            Requesters of public records and public agencies are cautioned 
            to review the applicable statute to determine the extent to 
            which the statute, in light of the circumstances surrounding 
            the request, exempts public records from disclosure.  

          3)Exempts from the disclosure requirements under the PRA records 
            that are exempted or prohibited pursuant to federal or state 
            law, including, but not limited to, provisions of the Evidence 
            Code relating to privilege.  

          4)Exempts from the disclosure requirements under the PRA the 
            home address and telephone number of peace officers, judges, 
            court commissioners, and magistrates that are set forth in 
            applications for licenses to carry firearms issued by the 
            sheriff of a county or the chief or other head of a municipal 
            police department.  

          5)Exempts from the disclosure requirements under the PRA the 
            home address and telephone number of peace officers, judges, 
            court commissioners, and magistrates that are set forth in 
            licenses to carry firearms issued by the sheriff of a county 
            or the chief or other head of a municipal police department.  

          6)Requires state and local law enforcement agencies, subject to 
            restrictions provided in other provisions of law, to make 
            public the current address of every individual arrested by the 
            agency and the current address of the victim of a crime, where 
            the requester declares under penalty of perjury that the 
            request is made for a scholarly, journalistic, political, or 
            governmental purpose, or that the request is made for 
            investigation purposes by a licensed private investigator.  
            However, the address of the victim of the following crimes 
            shall remain confidential:  assault with the intent to commit 
            mayhem, rape, sodomy, or oral copulation, human trafficking, 
            rape, unlawful sexual intercourse with a person under 18 years 
            of age, rape of a spouse, penetration or rape by a foreign 
            object, abduction for marriage or defilement, inveiglement or 
            enticement of an unmarried minor female under 18 for 
            prostitution, abduction or procurement by fraudulent 
            inducement for prostitution, abduction to live in illicit 
            relation, unlawful sexual intercourse where consent is 
            procured by fear, sale of a person for immoral purpose, 
            procurement of child under age 16 for lewd or lascivious acts, 
            abduction of person under age 18 for prostitution, aggravated 
            sexual assault of a child, willful harm or injury to a child, 








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            corporal punishment or injury of child, willful infliction of 
            corporal injury, incest, sodomy, lewd or lascivious acts, oral 
            copulation, harmful matter sent with intent to seduce minor, 
            contact of minor with intent to commit sexual offense, 
            continual sexual abuse of a child, sexual intercourse or 
            sodomy with a child 10 years of age or younger, forcible acts 
            of sexual penetration, interference with the exercise of civil 
            rights because of actual or perceived characteristics of the 
            victim, hate crime, stalking, or annoying or molesting a child 
            under 18.  Address information obtained pursuant to this 
            paragraph may not be used directly or indirectly, or furnished 
            to another, to sell a product or service to any individual or 
            group of individuals, and the requester shall execute a 
            declaration to that effect under penalty of perjury.  Nothing 
            in this paragraph shall be construed to prohibit or limit a 
            scholarly, journalistic, political, or government use of 
            address information obtained pursuant to this paragraph.  

          7)States that a victim has the right to prevent the disclosure 
            of confidential information or records to the defendant, the 
            defendant's attorney, or any other person acting on behalf of 
            the defendant, which could be used to locate or harass the 
            victim or the victim's family or which disclose confidential 
            communications made in the course of medical or counseling 
            treatment, or which are otherwise privileged or confidential 
            by law.  

           AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY  , this bill added prosecutors and 
          public defenders to the list of professionals whose firearm 
          licenses and license applications are not fully required to be 
          disclosed as public records under the California PRA.  
          Specifically,  this bill  :  
           
           1)Added confidential information or records pertaining to crime 
            victims, as provided in the Victims' Bill of Rights Act of 
            2008:  Marsy's Law, Section 28 of Article I of the California 
            Constitution, to the list of information not required to be 
            disclosed as public records under the PRA.

          2)Made other technical, non-substantive changes.  

           FISCAL EFFECT  :   According to the Senate Appropriations 
          Committee, pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8, negligible state costs. 










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           COMMENTS  :   According to the author, "Victims of crime deserve 
          the utmost of protections from defendants or their cohorts who 
          want to annoy, harass, intimidate or threaten victims.  No one 
          should be able to revictimize someone because of confusion in 
          the law.  AB 2221 will conform the PRA to our state 
          constitutional protections that recognizes the special 
          protections afforded crime victims.

          "Additionally, our prosecutors and public defenders, which are 
          in the trenches every day of our criminal justice system deserve 
          privacy protections as well when applying for a firearm license. 
           No person with nefarious intentions should be able to obtain 
          the identifying information, of prosecutors and public 
          defenders, subjecting them and their families to unnecessary 
          potential harm, just because they filled out an application for 
          a firearm license.  AB 2221 will extend the same protections 
          that judges and police officers enjoy now to prosecutors and 
          public defenders."

          Please see the policy committee analysis for a full discussion 
          of this bill.


           Analysis Prepared by  :    Stella Choe / PUB. S. / (916) 319-3744 


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