BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó







                      SENATE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY
                            Senator Loni Hancock, Chair              A
                             2011-2012 Regular Session               B

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          AB 2285 ( Eng)                                             5
          As Amended May 23, 2012 
          Hearing date: July 3, 2012
          Penal Code
          SM:dl

                         PEACE OFFICER EXAMINATIONS: CHEATING  

                                       HISTORY

          Source:  Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training 
          (POST)

          Prior Legislation: None

          Support: Unknown

          Opposition:None Known

          Assembly Floor Vote:  Ayes  74 - Noes  0



                                         KEY ISSUE
           
          SHOULD A PEACE OFFICER TRAINEE WHO KNOWINGLY CHEATS, ASSISTS IN 
          CHEATING, OR AIDS, ABETS, OR KNOWINGLY CONCEALS EFFORTS BY OTHERS TO 
          CHEAT IN ANY MANNER ON A BASIC COURSE EXAMINATION MANDATED BY THE 
          COMMISSION ON PEACE OFFICERS STANDARDS AND TRAINING AS SPECIFIED BE 
          LIABLE FOR A CIVIL FINE OF NOT MORE THAN $1,000 PER OCCURRENCE?


                                          




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                                                              AB 2285 (Eng)
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                                       PURPOSE
          
          The purpose of this bill is to (1) provide that a peace officer 
          trainee, as defined, who, based on investigative findings of the 
          Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, knowingly 
          cheats, assists in cheating, or aids, abets, or knowingly 
          conceals efforts by others to cheat in any manner on a basic 
          course examination mandated by the commission shall be liable 
          for a civil fine of not more than $1,000 per occurrence; and (2) 
          define "cheating" as any attempt or act by a peace officer 
          trainee to gain an unfair advantage or give an unfair advantage 
          to another peace officer trainee or group of trainees taking a 
          POST-mandated basic course examination.
          
           Current law  establishes the Commission on Peace Officer Training 
          and Standards (POST).
          (Penal Code Section 13500.)


























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           Current law  requires all peace officers to complete an 
          introductory course of training prescribed by POST, demonstrated 
          by passage of an appropriate examination developed by POST.  
          (Penal Code Section 832(a).)

           Current law  empowers POST to develop and implement programs to 
          increase the effectiveness of law enforcement.  (Penal Code 
          Section 13503.)

           Current law  authorizes POST, for the purpose of raising the 
          level of competence of local law enforcement officers, to adopt 
          rules establishing minimum standards related to physical, mental 
          and moral fitness and training that shall govern the recruitment 
          of any peace officers in California.  (Penal Code Section 
          13510(a).)

          Current law  requires POST to conduct research concerning 
          job-related educational standards and job-related selection 
          standards to include vision, hearing, physical ability, and 
          emotional stability and adopt standards supported by this 
          research.  (Penal Code Section 13510(b).)

           Current law  requires POST to establish a certification program 
          for peace officers, which shall be considered professional 
          certificates.  (Penal Code Section 13510.1(a).)

           Current law  states that any person who knowingly commits any of 
          the following acts is guilty of a misdemeanor, and for each 
          offense is punishable by a fine of not more than $1,000 or 
          imprisonment in the county jail not to exceed one year, or by 
          both a fine and imprisonment (Penal Code Section 13510.2):

                 Presents or attempts to present as the person's own the 
               certificate of another;
                 Knowingly permits another to use his or her certificate;
                 Knowingly give false evidence of any material kind to 
               POST, or any member thereof, including the staff, in 
               obtaining the certificate; or, 
                 Uses, or attempts to use, a canceled certificate.




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                                                              AB 2285 (Eng)
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           Current law  states that any person holding a POST certificate, 
          as specified, is determined to be disqualified from holding 
          office or being employed as a peace officer, as specified, POST 
          shall cause the following to be entered in the commission's 
          training record for that person: "THIS PERSON IS INELIGIBLE TO 
          BE A PEACE OFFICER IN CALIFORNIA PURSUANT TO GOVERNMENT CODE 
          SECTION 1029(a)."  (Penal Code Section 13510.3(a).)
           This bill  would provide that a peace officer trainee who, based 
          on POST'S  investigative findings, knowingly cheats, assists in 
          cheating, or aids, abets, or knowingly conceals efforts by 
          others to cheat in any manner on a basic course examination 
          mandated by POST shall be liable for a civil fine of not more 
          than $1,000 per occurrence.

           This bill  defines "cheating" as any attempt or act by a peace 
          officer trainee to gain an unfair advantage or give an unfair 
          advantage to another peace officer trainee or group of trainees 
          taking a POST-mandated basic course examination.

           This bill  defines "peace officer trainee" as an applicant for a 
          basic course examination who has not been hired by a department 
          or agency and who has not been sworn as a peace officer.


                    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 











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          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.

          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 











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          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
                 137.5 percent by June 27, 2013.
               
          This Bill does not aggravate the prison overcrowding crisis 
          described above under ROCA.


                                      COMMENTS

          1.  Need for the Bill  

          According to the author:

               AB 2285 creates a zero-tolerance for the breach of 
               examinations administered within POST-certified basic 
               course academies.  This legislation will deter test 
               compromise, hold culpable parties accountable, and 
               enable reimbursement for actual damages suffered by 
               POST.  Specifically, AB 2285 would make a person who 
               knowingly cheats, assists in cheating, or aids, abets, 
               or knowingly conceals any effort by others to cheat in 
               any manner on a test mandate by POST punishable by a 
               fine of not more than $1,000 per occurrence.

          2.  What this Bill Will Do  











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          This bill would provide that, if an applicant for a basic POST 
          course examination is found, based on an investigation by POST, 
          to have made any attempt to gain an unfair advantage for 
          themselves or others or aids anyone else in doing this, they 
          would be liable for a civil fine of up to $1,000, per 
          occurrence.  POST has informed the Committee that a compromised 
          test, for example, where cadets somehow gain access to test 
          answers prior to the test, can be very costly in terms of having 
          to redesign and re-administer the entire test.  They explain 
          that this civil fine is intended to deter cheating before the 
          test is compromised.


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