BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 505
Page 1
SENATE THIRD READING
SB 505 (Jackson)
As Amended August 18, 2014
Majority vote
SENATE VOTE :37-0
PUBLIC SAFETY 7-0 APPROPRIATIONS 15-2
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|Ayes:|Ammiano, Melendez, |Ayes:|Gatto, Bigelow, |
| |Jones-Sawyer, Quirk, | |Bocanegra, Bradford, Ian |
| |Skinner, Stone, Waldron | |Calderon, Campos, Eggman, |
| | | |Gomez, Holden, Jones, |
| | | |Linder, Pan, Quirk, |
| | | |Ridley-Thomas, Weber |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | |Nays:|Donnelly, Wagner |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Requires specified practices relative to "welfare
checks." Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires every law enforcement agency to develop, adopt, and
implement written policies and standard protocols pertaining
to the best manner to conduct a "welfare check" when the
inquiry into the welfare or well-being of the person is
motivated by a concern that the person may be dangerous to him
or herself or others.
2)Requires the policies to encourage a peace officer, before
conducting a welfare check and whenever possible and
reasonable, to conduct a search of the Automated Firearms
System (AFS) to determine if a person is the registered owner
of a firearm.
3)Defines "reasonable" to mean that the officer could conduct
the AFS check without undue burden on the execution of the
officer's other duties, that there are no exigent
circumstances demanding immediate attention, and that the
officer has access to, or can reasonably ascertain, relevant
identifying information.
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EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and
Training (POST) to establish, by July 1, 2006, and keep
updated a continuing education classroom training course
relating to law enforcement interaction with mentally disabled
persons. Requires the training course to be developed in
consultation with appropriate community, local, and state
organizations and agencies that have expertise in the area of
mental illness and developmental disability, and with
appropriate consumer and family advocate groups. Requires
POST, in developing the course, to examine existing courses
certified by the commission that relate to mentally disabled
persons. Requires POST to make the course available to law
enforcement agencies in California.
2)Authorizes, upon probable cause, a peace officer or other
specified mental health treatment individuals to take, or
cause to be taken, a person into custody for a period of up to
72 hours for assessment, evaluation, and crisis intervention,
or placement for evaluation and treatment in a facility
designated and approved, as specified, when the person, as a
result of a mental health disorder, is a danger to himself,
herself, or others, or is gravely disabled.
3)Requires that whenever a person, who has been detained or
apprehended for examination of his or her mental condition or
who is a person that is a danger to himself, herself, or
others as a result of a mental illness or disorder, is found
to own, have in his or her possession or under his or her
control, any firearm whatsoever, or any other deadly weapon,
the firearm or other deadly weapon be confiscated by any law
enforcement agency or peace officer, who shall retain custody
of the firearm or other deadly weapon.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, current law authorizes such AFS checks now, at the
discretion of the officer and department policy. This bill
creates a reimbursable mandate that would allow law enforcement
entities to file state mandate claims for AFS searches in a
welfare check situation in which the subject is suspected of
being a danger to self or others. AFS checks are generally
conducted via office or patrol car terminals, and take only a
few minutes. But by making these checks mandatory, the state
SB 505
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must pay for all such checks statewide.
Extrapolating from the number of service calls by the Los
Angeles (L.A.) Sheriff's Office that would likely fall under
this proposal, if L.A. City and County conducted 30 related
welfare checks per day total, spending an average of 15 minutes
obtaining identification and running it through California Law
Enforcement Telecommunications System (CLETS), the annual
mandated cost of the CLETS checks would be about $140,000.
Assuming L.A. City and County account for 33% of the state
mandate, the statewide cost would be in the range of $400,000.
COMMENTS : According to the author, "If law enforcement would
have searched the state's gun database they would have known
that Elliot Rodger had purchased three handguns within the last
year and a half. Although law enforcement would not have had
the legal authority to immediately seize Elliott Rodger's three
guns, had they known about them, a gun database search could
have provided additional information that might have helped them
better assess the situation. Law enforcement could potentially
have requested that Rodger surrender the weapons or asked him
further questions that might have changed the direction of their
conversation with him.
"SB 505 will help ensure that peace officers have pertinent
information about gun ownership when conducting a well-being
check in those instances where the check is motivated by a
concern that the subject is potentially a danger to self or
others, providing law enforcement with more information with
which they can assess a potentially dangerous situation,
protecting not only public safety, but also the safety of
officers involved."
Please see the policy committee analysis for a full discussion
of this bill.
Analysis Prepared by : Shaun Naidu / PUB. S. / (916) 319-3744
FN: 0004813
SB 505
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