BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 490|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 490
Author: Hancock (D), et al.
Amended: 5/31/11
Vote: 21
SENATE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE : 6-0, 05/03/11
AYES: Hancock, Calderon, Harman, Liu, Price, Steinberg
NO VOTE RECORDED: Anderson
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 9-0, 05/26/11
AYES: Kehoe, Walters, Alquist, Emmerson, Lieu, Pavley,
Price, Runner, Steinberg
SUBJECT : Corrections: Office of the Inspector General
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill restructures the Office of Inspector
General and narrows its duties and responsibilities. This
bill removes the Inspector General and other prospective
employees from peace officer status, and instead provides
them with non-peace officer authority relating to powers of
arrest, serving warrants, and access to criminal history
information, as specified.
ANALYSIS : Existing law creates the independent Office of
the Inspector General and provides that it is not a
subdivision of any other government entity. The Inspector
General and certain other employees of the office are peace
officers provided that the primary duty of these peace
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officers is conducting audits of investigatory practices
and other audits, as well as conducting investigations, of
the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Division
of Juvenile Justice, and the Board of Parole Hearings.
This bill removes the Inspector General and the other
employees from peace officer status. The bill authorizes
the Inspector General and certain other employees to
exercise the powers of arrest and serving warrants, as
provided.
Existing law requires the Inspector General to, among other
things, review departmental policy and procedures, conduct
audits of investigatory practices and other audits, be
responsible for contemporaneous oversight of internal
affairs investigations and the disciplinary process, and
conduct investigations of the department, and audit each
warden of an institution one year after his or her
appointment and each correctional institution at least once
every four years. Existing law establishes within the
Office of the Inspector General a Bureau of Independent
Review. Existing law requires the Inspector General to
evaluate and determine the qualifications of each candidate
for warden or superintendent, as specified.
This bill removes the requirement that the Inspector
General review departmental policy and procedures, conduct
audits of investigatory practices and other audits, and
conduct investigations of the department, and instead
provide that the Inspector General shall be responsible for
contemporaneous oversight of internal affairs
investigations and the disciplinary process of the
department pursuant to provisions specifying the
responsibilities of the Bureau of Independent Review. The
bill removes the requirement of the Inspector General to
audit wardens. The bill requires the Inspector General to
conduct an objective, clinically appropriate, and
metric-oriented medical inspection program to periodically
review delivery of medical care at each state prison.
Background
Recent Senate Office of Oversight and Outcomes Report
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In November of 2010, the Senate Office of Oversight and
Outcomes issued a report entitled, Gun-Toting Auditors and
Attorneys: Does the Inspector General Need 105 Armed Peace
Officers ? The summary for this report includes the
following:
The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) is an
independent state agency established in 1998 to
oversee and investigate alleged wrongdoing within the
state corrections department. Among its duties, OIG
conducts audits and investigations of the California
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, oversees
the department's internal affairs investigations,
collects complaints and tips about the correctional
system, evaluates candidates for warden, and inspects
facilities.
The OIG workforce has tripled in the last six years,
from 48 to 150. At the same time, the proportion of
peace officers has also grown: from 44% in 2003 to 70%
today. Much of the growth at OIG was the result of
the creation in 2004 of a Bureau of Independent
Review. The new bureau was part of the state's
response to the well-publicized federal court
oversight of the prison system in the ongoing Madrid
litigation, which found that state corrections
officials were plagued by inadequate internal policing
and insufficient investigation of wrongful behavior,
including excessive force.
As currently configured, 105 of the 150 positions in
the Office of the Inspector General are sworn peace
officers. Their titles are spelled out in Penal Code
Section 830.2 (j), a statute amended in 2009
specifically to include the 27 lawyers in the Bureau
of Independent Review. The office's auditors have
been peace officers since the OIG was established,
along with the Inspector General himself.
Among our findings:
OIG staffers from the Inspector General on down
are expected to carry a gun and ammunition at all
times they're on duty: at the office, on the road,
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in the air. But one place they always go unarmed is
inside a prison. At California correctional
facilities, OIG staff must check their weapons at
the gate or leave them locked in their cars.
Those weapons have price tags: $430 for a
Glock semi-automatic pistol, $35 for a holster, $75
for ammunition. All told, outfitting each OIG peace
officer costs taxpayers $2,050. Add the take-home
state car, and the grand total exceeds $20,000.
In the past five years no OIG peace officer has
fired a gun on duty, except at the firing range.
That itself can be dangerous - one Deputy Inspector
General accidentally shot himself while putting in
his required hours at the range.
70% of the mileage OIG peace officers put on
their take-home state cars is for their daily
commute to the office. The Senate oversight office
asked for all vehicle home-storage permits and was
given permits for 71 OIG peace officers. Based on
these permits, their home-to-office commutes total
3,230 miles per workday (an average of 45 miles for
each worker). Overall, of the 1 million miles
logged by the OIG fleet in 2009/10, more than
700,000 miles were for employees' commute to work.
During 2007, 2008 and 2009, OIG fielded more
than 10,000 separate complaints and tips - but only
eight cases were referred to a law enforcement
agency for possible criminal prosecution during
those three years. Another six criminal
investigations were closed by the OIG for lack of
evidence, for a total of 14 cases, according to
quarterly reports. Despite the low number of
criminal cases, in 2009 the OIG created a separate
Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
The career paths leading to these peace officer
positions indicate how unusual the Office of the
Inspector General is in this area. In the two OIG
bureaus that house the attorneys and auditors, 98%
were not peace officers before signing on with the
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Inspector General.
The OIG's Bureau of Independent Review was
modeled on Los Angeles County's Office of
Independent Review, a team of lawyers who monitor
the L.A. Sheriff's Department, including county
jails. The Los Angeles operation, however, is
emphatically a civilian group. "We don't feel we
need peace officer status - we never asked for it,
we never needed it, we don't want it," its chief
attorney said.
California's Attorney General employs 1,150
lawyers. They don't have take-home cars and only a
handful, fewer than 5, are sworn peace officers.
Just one carries a gun. None of the AG's 80
auditors are peace officers or get state cars.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:
Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2011-12 2012-13
2013-14 Fund
Narrowing of OIG Savings
of $2,800 in 2011-12; savings
General
duties of $5,600 in 2012-13
Removal of peace officer Unknown;
potential future cost savings General
status of $16 per position
SUPPORT : (Verified 6/1/11)
California Correctional Supervisors Organization
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office:
This bill starts the process of eliminating the abuse
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of peace officer status in state government and the
resulting waste of taxpayer dollars. Attorneys and
auditors in the Office of the Inspector General (OIG)
receive peace officer status despite the fact that
their job duties do not require the specialized
functions of law enforcement officers.
A recent report by the Senate Office of Oversights and
Outcomes titled, "Gun-toting Auditors and Attorneys:
Does the Inspector General Need 105 Armed Peace
Officers?" found that outfitting each attorney and
auditor with guns, holsters, handcuffs, ammunition and
related equipment costs more than $2,000 per employee.
The report also revealed that their state-issued cars
logged more than 700,000 miles for home-to-work
commutes, at no cost to the employee. That figure
represented 70% of the total mileage utilized. The OIG
use peace officer perks to attract and retain its team
of lawyers and auditors. Since 2004, the proportion of
peace officers has grown in the agency from 44% in
2003 to 70% today.
SB 490 eliminates the wasteful spending at the OIG by
removing peace officer status from the Inspector
General and other employees of the OIG, and recasts
the mission and responsibilities of the OIG to ensure
the agency continues to carry out its work in a
cost-effective manner.
RJG:nl 6/1/11 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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