BILL ANALYSIS Ó ----------------------------------------------------------------- |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2220| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |1020 N Street, Suite 524 | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- THIRD READING Bill No: AB 2220 Author: Daly (D) Amended: 8/19/14 in Senate Vote: 21 SENATE BUSINESS, PROF. & ECON. DEV. COMM. : 8-0, 6/16/14 AYES: Lieu, Wyland, Berryhill, Block, Corbett, Galgiani, Hill, Torres NO VOTE RECORDED: Hernandez SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 5-0, 8/14/14 AYES: De León, Hill, Lara, Padilla, Steinberg NO VOTE RECORDED: Walters, Gaines ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 75-0, 5/19/14 - See last page for vote SUBJECT : Private security services: private patrol operators SOURCE : California Association of Licensed Security Agencies, Guards and Associates DIGEST : This bill authorizes, effective July 1, 2016, a licensed Private Patrol Operator (PPO), as defined, to be the registered owner of a firearm, and establishes procedures for a PPO to assign its firearms to its employees who are licensed to carry firearms; and requires, as a condition of licensure, a PPO to have on file with the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services (BSIS) a liability insurance policy, as specified. ANALYSIS : CONTINUED AB 2220 Page 2 Existing law: 1. Licenses and regulates PPOs and their employees through BSIS. 2. Requires a PPO to carry a $500,000 insurance policy only if it employs armed guards. 3. Exempts a peace officer, as defined in the Penal Code, which has successfully completed a course of study in the use of firearms, from the additional training required for licensees. 4. Requires a licensee to retake a firearms training course when renewing a firearms qualification card. There is no exemption for peace officers. 5. Regulates the ownership and transfer of firearms, but does not authorize business entities to own or register firearms. This bill authorizes, effective July 1, 2016, a licensed PPO to be the registered owner of a firearm, if the PPO is registered with the Department of Justice (DOJ); and establishes procedures for PPOs to assign its firearms to its employees who are licensed to carry firearms. Specifically, this bill: 1. Defines PPO as a private patrol operator licensed pursuant to Business and Professions Code (BPC) Section 7580 et seq. whose license is not suspended, revoked, delinquent, or cancelled; and defines "security guard" as a security guard registered pursuant to BPC Section 7580 et seq. whose registration is not suspended, revoked, delinquent, or cancelled. 2. Requires DOJ to modify the Dealers' Record of Sale (DROS) form to record the PPO as the purchaser and registered owner of the firearm. 3. Requires DOJ to modify the DROS form to require the PPO to designate a "firearms custodian" for the firearm owned by the PPO. The firearms custodian shall possess a valid firearm qualification permit issued by BSIS. Requires the PPO to notify DOJ if the firearms custodian is no longer employed by AB 2220 Page 3 the PPO within seven days and notify DOJ, within 20 days of the original notice, of the designated replacement firearms custodian. 4. Requires DOJ to prescribe a Certificate of Assignment (COA). The COA may include fields that are in the DROS form and will be used to identify the PPO employee assigned to a PPO-owned firearm. 5. Requires security guards who receive a firearm pursuant to a COA to possess a valid firearm qualification permit issued by BSIS. Requires PPO firearms acquired prior to July 1, 2016, to be registered, as specified. 6. Authorizes DOJ to charge reasonable fees for the implementation of this program to the PPOs and deposit those fees in the DROS account. 7. Requires the PPO to complete a COA indicating the firearm is no longer assigned to the employee and that the firearm is in the PPO's possession, upon the termination of employment that requires the security guard to be armed and the transfer of the firearm from the security guard back to the PPO. 8. Authorizes fees collected and deposited into the DROS account to be used for expenditure by DOJ, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the purposes of this bill. 9. Requires that if the PPO loses its license or goes out of business, the PPO must, within 30 days and unless otherwise prohibited by law, lawfully sell or transfer all PPO-owned firearms. 10.Requires a PPO to notify DOJ of the sale or transfer of a PPO-owned firearm within five business days, as specified. 11.Requires that a security guard shall, within 48 hours of the PPO's request, for any reason, or within 48 hours of separation of employment or revocation of the firearm qualification card, return the firearm to the PPO. 12.Includes codified legislative findings and declarations. 13.Revises the coverage amount PPOs are required to maintain as AB 2220 Page 4 a condition of licensure that provides minimum limits of insurance of $1 million for any one loss or occurrence due to bodily injury, including death, or property damage, or both. 14.Requires PPOs to keep a copy of the insurance policy on file with the BSIS as a condition of licensure. 15.Provides that a duly appointed peace officer authorized to carry a firearm in the course of their duties and who has completed requalification training for another agency is exempt from the requirements of requalifying on the range and passing the written examination for the purposes of renewing a firearms qualification card, as specified. 16.Authorizes BSIS to assess an administrative fine of up to $1,000 against a PPO or a security guard for violations of the bill's provisions and deposit it in the Private Security Services Fund. Background PPOs (private security companies) are licensed and regulated by BSIS. Possession and use of firearms by PPO employees (security guards) is specifically regulated. Under existing law, companies are not authorized to be the legal owner of a firearm (with the exception of assault weapons), and it has been indicated that PPOs are utilizing the existing provisions of law that allow for firearms to be infrequently loaned to a person known to the owner, as a means of providing firearms to employees. Pursuant to Penal Code Section 27880, firearms may be loaned between persons who are personally known to each other subject to specified requirements including that the loan must be for a lawful purpose, the loan must not exceed 30 days, the individual being loaned the firearm must have a valid handgun safety certificate (if the firearm is a handgun), and the loan is infrequent, meaning less than six transactions per calendar year for handguns. To the extent PPOs are switching firearms every 30 days between firearm-certified employees is not only administratively burdensome but also potentially not in the best interests of public safety. AB 2220 Page 5 Comments According to the author's office, one of the purposes of this bill is to protect clients and the public by requiring an adequate amount of insurance. According to the author's office, this bill will also eliminate a discrepancy between the training requirements for peace officers during initial applications and renewals. Lastly, this bill will also allow PPOs to own and issue firearms to their employees, eliminating the need for the use of a loan loophole. FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes Local: Yes According to the Senate Appropriations Committee: One-time costs to DOJ of about $1 million (Special Fund*) to enhance the registration database and update forms to accommodate the new fields for PPO designation, offset by an undetermined level of fee revenue. Ongoing workload to the DOJ Bureau of Firearms of about $500,000 (Special Fund*) for investigations, inspections, and the processing of forms, offset by the authority to charge fees. Ongoing costs of less than $150,000 (Special Fund**) to DCA for enforcement of the insurance requirements and the registration process for assigning firearms. DCA investigations would be initiated based on complaint allegations of uninsured PPO operations, and ongoing workload resulting from inspections for compliance by PPOs. Costs will be offset in minor part by citation revenue of less than $10,000 annually. Likely minor non-reimbursable local enforcement costs offset to a degree by fine revenue for misdemeanor violations by security guards for failure to return an assigned firearm as required under the provisions of this bill. * DROS Special Account (the DROS Special Account is operating at a structural deficit with a projected 2014-15 year-end balance AB 2220 Page 6 of $1.3 million.) **Private Security Services Fund SUPPORT : (Verified 8/18/14) California Association of Licensed Security Agencies, Guards and Associates (source) ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : In sponsoring the bill, the California Association of Licensed Security Agencies, Guards and Associates writes: We believe these changes continue the outstanding and nationally recognized security guard industry in California by adding greater public and consumer protection and assist our state regulatory agency, the Bureau of Security & investigative Services, in their effort to curb unlicensed activity. AB 2220 will allow Private Patrol Operators to be the Legal Owner of a firearm and assign that firearm to a qualified employee. To be armed, the employee will also be required to possess a valid Guard Card, a Firearm Qualification Card, and a Handgun Safety Certificate prior to being issued a Certificate of Assignment for the firearm. The employee will then effectively be the weapon's Registered "Assigned" Owner. Under AB 2220, the assignment of a weapon from a registered company to a designated employee would not constitute a loan, sale or transfer of the weapon. Companies will be required to fill out a Dealers' Record of Sale (DROS) for the purchase and initial registration of the weapon and, with the required Department of Justice's (DOJ) modifications to the DROS, will also include the information for the assigned employee. These changes to the DROS and additional processing on behalf of the DOJ will be mitigated by imposing a reasonable fee for enforcement. Private Patrol Operators will still be required to have a firearms custodian. Under current law, having a company's weapon cache registered to one designated weapon's custodian presents an array of issues if and when that employee chooses to leave their employment with the company. This bill will mitigate these issues and allow for a company to consistently keep their AB 2220 Page 7 weapons cache registered under the company name, assigning the firearm on a need-be basis to qualified employees. The use of a Legal Owner and Registered Owner format will also simplify identification of who possesses a firearm, thereby enhancing public safety. ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 75-0, 5/19/14 AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Bigelow, Bloom, Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Brown, Buchanan, Ian Calderon, Campos, Chau, Chávez, Chesbro, Conway, Cooley, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dickinson, Eggman, Fong, Fox, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gorell, Gray, Grove, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Roger Hernández, Holden, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Linder, Logue, Lowenthal, Maienschein, Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Muratsuchi, Olsen, Pan, Patterson, Perea, John A. Pérez, V. Manuel Pérez, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Skinner, Stone, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wieckowski, Wilk, Williams, Yamada, Atkins NO VOTE RECORDED: Donnelly, Mansoor, Nazarian, Nestande, Vacancy MW:k 8/18/14 Senate Floor Analyses SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE **** END ****