BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de León, Chair
SB 340 Jackson - Law enforcement: anti-reproductive-rights
crimes.
Amended: As Introduced Policy Vote: Public Safety 5-2
Urgency: No Mandate: Yes
Hearing Date: May 6, 2013 Consultant: Jolie Onodera
This bill does not meet the criteria for referral to the
Suspense File.
Bill Summary: SB 340 would eliminate the sunset date on the
Reproductive Rights Law Enforcement Act (RRLEA).
Fiscal Impact:
Minor ongoing workload costs of less than $25,000 (General
Fund) to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for data collection
as required under the RRLEA.
Minor ongoing costs to POST to purchase copies of training
materials and issue training bulletins.
Minor, if any, state-reimbursable costs to local law
enforcement for reporting to the DOJ. There have been no
more than 10 reports of ARRCs since reporting requirements
began in 2003.
Background: In response to criminal activity affecting the
rights of individuals seeking to exercise their rights to
reproductive health care, the California Freedom of Access to
Clinics and Church Entrances Act (FACE Act) created state civil
and criminal penalties for individuals interfering with a
person's access to reproductive health care facilities or
participation in religious services. In addition, the RRLEA
directs the Attorney General (AG) to develop a plan, with input
from subject matter experts, to prevent, apprehend, prosecute
and report anti-reproductive rights crimes (ARRCs).
The RRLEA requires the Attorney General (AG) to do the
following:
Collect information relating to anti-reproductive-rights
crimes, including the threatened commission of these crimes
and persons suspected of committing these crimes or making
these threats.
SB 340 (Jackson)
Page 1
Direct law enforcement agencies to provide the DOJ, as
prescribed by the AG, any information that may be required
relative to anti-reproductive rights crimes.
Consult the Governor, Commission on Peace Officer Standards
and Training (POST) and other subject matter experts.
Under the RRLEA, POST is required to develop a two-hour
telecourse on ARRCs to be made available to law enforcement
agencies and to distribute training bulletins via the internet,
as specified. The RRLEA also directs the Commission on the
Status of Women to convene an Advisory Committee on ARRCs to
examine the effectiveness of the implementation of the RRLEA and
to review the AG plan.
The provisions of the RRLEA will sunset on January 1, 2014.
Proposed Law: This bill would repeal the sunset date on the
RRLEA, thereby making existing provisions of law under this
title operative indefinitely.
Related Legislation: SB 1770 (Padilla) Chapter 206/2008 extended
the sunset date on the RRLEA from January 1, 2009, to January 1,
2014.
SB 603 (Ortiz) Chapter 481/2006 extended the sunset date on the
RRLEA from January 1, 2006 to January 1, 2009.
Staff Comments: By deleting the sunset date on the entire title,
this bill would require the AG to continue the existing
responsibilities indefinitely. The ongoing DOJ workload for data
collection is estimated to be minor, likely less than $25,000
(General Fund) per year to the Criminal Justice Statistics
Center within the California Justice Information Services
Division.
POST has indicated the ongoing costs associated with the
provisions of this bill are negligible. The workload to issue
electronic training bulletins would be minor, and the cost of
purchasing copies of the developed training video are estimated
at $6,000 per year.
This bill would require local law enforcement agencies to report
specified crimes to the AG indefinitely, an existing
state-mandated local activity. Staff notes to date there has not
been a mandate claim resulting from this reporting requirement.
SB 340 (Jackson)
Page 2
The DOJ annual reports on the number of anti-reproductive-rights
crimes have reflected minimal reports of no more than 10 crimes
per year since 2003. The DOJ report, Anti-Reproductive-Rights
Crimes in California 2011, noted only 9 reports of
anti-reproductive rights crimes.