BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 807
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 807 (Ammiano)
As Amended April 11, 2013
Majority vote
PUBLIC SAFETY 6-1 APPROPRIATIONS 14-3
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|Ayes:|Ammiano, Melendez, |Ayes:|Gatto, Bocanegra, |
| |Jones-Sawyer, Mitchell, | |Bradford, |
| |Quirk, Skinner | |Ian Calderon, Campos, |
| | | |Donnelly, Eggman, Gomez, |
| | | |Hall, Ammiano, Linder, |
| | | |Pan, Quirk, Weber |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
|Nays:|Waldron |Nays:|Harkey, Bigelow, Wagner |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Requires the Department of Justice (DOJ) to include in
its annual report on criminal statistics additional statistical
information relating to complaints received by law enforcement
agencies and criminal convictions of peace officers.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires the DOJ to include in its annual report to the
Governor statistical information, for each individual law
enforcement agency, relating to the following types of
complaints received by law enforcement agencies:
a) Citizens' complaints, as specified;
b) Complaints against the personnel of a department or
agency that employs peace officers that are made by that
personnel's supervisor or by the personnel of another
department or agency that employs peace officers; and
c) Complaints against the personnel of a department or
agency that employs peace officers in which the identity of
the complainant is unknown.
2)Requires the DOJ to categorize each complaint described above
into one of the following categories and report the number of
complaints within each category for each individual law
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enforcement agency:
a) "Excessive force," which means a complaint regarding the
use or threatened use of excessive force against a person;
b) "Improper arrest," which means a complaint that the
restraint of a person's liberty was improper or unjust or
violated a person's civil liberties;
c) "Improper entry," which means a complaint that the entry
into a building or onto property was improper or that
excessive force was used against property to gain entrance
into a building or onto property;
d) "Improper search," which means a complaint that the
search of a person or property was improper;
e) "Other criminal violation," which means a complaint
regarding the commission of an illegal act not otherwise
specified;
f) "Differential treatment," which means a complaint that
the taking, failure to take, or method of police action was
predicated upon irrelevant factors, including, but not
limited to, race, appearance, age, or sex;
g) "Demeanor," which means a complaint that the personnel's
bearing, gestures, language, or other characteristics or
actions were inappropriate; or
h) "Other rule violation," which means a complaint for
conduct that violates agency rules, but that is not
encompassed in one of the above categories.
3)Requires DOJ to report within each category of complaint
described above the number of complaints with each of the
following disposition categories:
a) "Sustained," which means that the investigation
disclosed sufficient evidence to prove the truth of the
allegation in the complaint by a preponderance of the
evidence;
b) "Exonerated," which means that the investigation clearly
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established that the personnel's actions alleged in the
complaint are not a violation of law or agency policy;
c) "Not sustained," which means that the investigation
failed to disclose sufficient evidence to clearly prove or
disprove the allegation in the complaint; and
d) "Unfounded," which means that the investigation clearly
established that the allegation is not true.
4)Requires DOJ to include in its annual report to the Governor
the total number of felony and misdemeanor convictions
incurred by peace officers for conduct occurring on- and
off-duty.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Provides that, except as specified, peace officer personnel
records and records maintained by any state or local agency as
specified are confidential and that records of complaints to
any state or local police agency, except as specified, are not
required to be disclosed to the public.
2)Requires DOJ to collect and to present an annual report to the
Governor of, among other statistics, the total, gross number
of citizens' complaints received by law enforcement agencies,
without referencing any individual agency.
3)Specifies that the DOJ annual report contains statistics
regarding the amount and types of offenses known to public
authorities; the personal and social characteristics of
criminals and delinquents; the administrative actions taken by
law enforcement, judicial, penal, and correctional agencies or
institutions, including those in the juvenile justice system,
in dealing with criminals or delinquents; and the number of
citizens' complaints received by law enforcement agencies, as
specified.
4)Requires every person and agency that deals with crimes or
criminals or with delinquency or delinquents to maintain
specified records and report statistical data to the DOJ when
requested by the Attorney General.
5)Requires every department or agency in California that employs
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peace officers to establish a procedure to investigate
complaints by members of the public against the personnel of
these departments or agencies and make a written description
of the procedure available to the public.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee:
1)Moderate one-time state costs of about $150,000 to the DOJ for
staffing to reconfigure the existing database to receive,
retain and report the required data. Ongoing costs would
likely be minor.
2)Presuming local law enforcement agencies agree to provide the
data to DOJ necessary to accomplish the requirements of this
bill, there would be moderate ongoing nonreimbursable costs to
local law enforcement agencies, likely in the low hundreds of
thousands of dollars, based on previous local mandates for
staffing to track, compile and report data to the DOJ.
Though this bill is not keyed a state mandate, it is not likely
to work uniformly unless local entities are required to
compile and report the data, which would make it a
reimbursable mandate.
COMMENTS : According to the author, "The vast majority of police
officers are honest, loyal, and hardworking professionals. The
broad-brush strokes of officer brutality and excessive force
sometimes painted by the media are almost always the product of
misconduct by a small minority of officers. But the misconduct
of a few can often taint the reputation of many.
"Over the past seven years there have been a series of high
high-profile incidents of peace officer misconduct. These
instances challenge law enforcement agencies-even the largest
and most sophisticated agencies-to detect, effectively intervene
in, or prevent instances of officer misconduct and to remove
from the agency those officers who cannot conform their conduct
to the agency's policies and the rule of law.
"The California Supreme Court's decision in Copley Press
interpreted the Peace Officer's Bill of Rights to prohibit the
disclosure of information from the personnel records of a peace
officer requested pursuant to the California Public Records Act
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and additionally held that the information is exempt from
disclosure even when held by a civil service commission that
hears appeals after officers have been disciplined. As a result
of the Copley Press decision, all appeals of officer discipline
now occur behind closed doors and the public has no right of
access to the adjudicated facts, process or outcome. In fact, a
commonly held interpretation of Copley Press is that it
prohibits and removes the discretion of law enforcement agency
employers and civil service commission to disclose facts and
outcomes associated with serious confirmed cases of misconduct
even if the agency or commission believes it is in the highest
public interest to release the information.
"This lack of public access of the official hearings and records
associated with officer misconduct creates the public perception
that some officers have engaged in many instances of serious and
violent misconduct over their careers and are allowed by their
employing agency to continue both their employment and bad
behavior.
"Because public access to the official record associated with
cases of officer misconduct is suppressed from origination to
outcome by the force of law, the public has no choice but to get
its information as it can, from alleged victims of official
abuse, leaks and the media. This official secrecy often creates
one-sided perceptions about alleged officer misconduct that
cannot be balanced because of the nearly absolute muzzle placed
on law enforcement agencies by state law. California's policy
of official secrecy unfairly creates widespread public
perception that investigations of serious officer misconduct and
the administration of discipline are handled unfairly,
capriciously, inconsistently, and unprofessionally. The
ramifications of this public perception are extremely damaging
to the mission of California law enforcement agencies and to the
safety and morale of officers.
"The DOJ is required to collect minimal information from law
enforcement agencies in order to tabulate, analyze, and
interpret data, and to prepare an annual report presenting these
statistics from previous years. AB 807 would require the DOJ to
include additional statistics relating to complaints received by
law enforcement agencies and outcomes of discipline
proceedings."
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Please see the policy committee analysis for a full discussion
of this bill.
Analysis Prepared by : Shaun Naidu / PUB. S. / (916) 319-3744
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0000779