BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY
Senator Loni Hancock, Chair S
2013-2014 Regular Session B
5
0
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SB 505 (Jackson)
As Amended August 20, 2014
Hearing date: August 21, 2014
Penal Code
JD:mc
PURSUANT TO SENATE RULE 29.10(d)
PEACE OFFICERS: WELFARE CHECKS: FIREARMS
COMMENTS
Please see the attached Senate Floor analysis. This bill is
before the Committee pursuant to Senate Rule 29.10(d). The
Committee, by a majority vote of the membership, may either:
1. hold the bill, or
2. return the bill to the Senate Floor for consideration of
the bill as amended in the Assembly. (SR 29.10(d).)
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SB 505 (Jackson)
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 505
Author: Jackson (D)
Amended: 8/18/14
Vote: 21
PRIOR VOTES NOT RELEVANT
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 78-0, 8/20/14 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Police officers: welfare checks: weapons
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill requires law enforcement agencies to
develop, adopt, and implement written policies and standard
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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 a danger
to himself or herself or to others.
Assembly Amendments delete the Senate version of the bill
related to education technology and add the current language
relating to policies and protocols for the conduct of police
officers, relative to welfare checks.
ANALYSIS :
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 POST 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
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apprehended for examination of his/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/her possession or under his/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.
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
himself/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 can 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.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee:
Existing law authorizes such AFS checks now, at the discretion
of the officer and department policy. This bill creates a
reimbursable mandate that will allow law enforcement entities
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to file state mandate claims for AFS searches in a welfare
check situation in which the subject is suspected of being a
danger to himself/herself 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
must pay for all such checks statewide.
Extrapolating from the number of service calls by the LA
Sheriff's Office that will 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 the California Law
Enforcement Telecommunications System (CLETS), the annual
mandated cost of the CLETS checks will be about $140,000.
Assuming L.A. City and County account for 33% of the state
mandate, the statewide cost will be in the range of $400,000.
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SUPPORT : (Verified 8/20/14)
Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence
California Police Chiefs Association
City Attorney of Los Angeles
Friends Committee on Legislation
Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence
Los Angeles District Attorneys Association
Physicians for Social Responsibility (Sacramento)
Ventura County Board of Supervisors
OPPOSITION : (Verified 8/20/14)
California Association of Federal Firearms Licensees
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author, "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."
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : California Association of Federal
Firearms Licensees writes:
"Law enforcement officers are free to access such information in
the course and scope of their duties under existing law. Not
only would your proposed mandate cost taxpayers into the
millions of dollars and interfere with the judgment of local law
enforcement, it would further stigmatize law-abiding gun owners
as being a 'social risk' simply because they choose to exercise
fundamental Second Amendment rights.
"A welfare check on an elderly gun owner experiencing health
issues does not require invasions of privacy, general warrants,
and armed S.W.A.T. teams."
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ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 78-0, 8/20/14
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, Donnelly, Eggman, Fong, Fox,
Frazier, Beth Gaines, Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon,
Gorell, Gray, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Roger Hernández, Holden,
Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Linder, Logue, Lowenthal,
Maienschein, Mansoor, Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Muratsuchi,
Nazarian, Nestande, 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: Grove, Vacancy
JG:e 8/20/14 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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