BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 702
Author: Anderson (R)
Amended: 6/30/14
Vote: 21
PRIOR VOTES NOT RELEVANT
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 78-0, 8/14/14 (Consent) - See last page for
vote
SUBJECT : Criminal law: badges: impersonation
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill increases the maximum misdemeanor fine for
a person using a badge or emblem to impersonate a peace officer,
from $1,000 to $2,000, and requires the local law enforcement
agency that files charges to seize the item used to carry out
the impersonation.
Assembly Amendments delete the Senate version of the bill which
dealt with default judgments, and instead add the current
language relating to impersonating of a peace officer.
ANALYSIS :
Existing law:
1. Punishes any person who willfully wears, exhibits, or uses,
or who willfully makes, sells, loans, gives, or transfers to
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SB 702
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another, any badge, insignia, emblem, device, or any label,
certificate, card, or writing, which falsely purports to be
authorized for the use of one who by law is given the
authority of a peace officer, or which so resembles the
authorized badge, insignia, emblem, device, label,
certificate, card, or writing of a peace officer as would
deceive an ordinary reasonable person into believing that it
is authorized for the use of one who by law is given the
authority of a peace officer by imprisonment in the county
jail for up to six months, a fine of up to $1,000, or both.
2. Punishes every person who designates any nongovernmental
organization by any name, including, but not limited to any
name that incorporates the term "peace officer," "police," or
"law enforcement," that would reasonably be understood to
imply that the organization is composed of law enforcement
personnel, when, in fact, less than 80% of the voting members
of the organization are law enforcement personnel or
firefighters, active or retired by imprisonment in the county
jail for up to six months, a fine of up to $1,000, or both.
This bill increases the maximum misdemeanor fine for a person
using a badge or emblem to impersonate a peace officer, from
$1,000 to $2,000, and requires the local law enforcement agency
that files charges to seize the item used to carry out the
impersonation.
Prior Legislation
AB 1448 (Niello, Chapter 241, Statutes of 2007) requires law
enforcement uniform vendors to verify that a person buying a
uniform is an employee of the law enforcement agency identified
on the uniform, and makes it a misdemeanor to fail to verify
identity.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No Local:
No
According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, negligible
nonreimbursable local administrative costs more than offset by
increased local and state fine revenue. (With penalty
assessments, a $2,000 fine is really an $8,000 fine.)
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/14/14)
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Alturair
Cabazon County Water District
California Correctional Peace Officers' Association
Cities of: El Cajon, Indian Wells, La Mesa, Los Alamito, Chula
Vista
Deputy Sheriffs' Association of San Diego County
San Diego County Assessor, Ernest J. Dronenburg
San Diego Unified School District Board of Education
OPPOSITION : (Verified 8/14/14)
Legal Services for Prisoners with Children
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author, "A law
enforcement officer's badge is not only a sign of years of
specialized training, it is also a sign of the public's trust.
Those that wear the badge are not self-serving, but rather
public servants entrusted with our public safety. For those
that have not earned this badge to use it in a self-serving
manner while systematically undermining the public's trust is
wrong. SB 702 is a bill to curb law enforcement badge abuse by
increasing the penalty for badge abuse and fraud to match that
of other public corruption crimes. This bill seeks to ensure
that public trust in our law enforcement officials is not
eroded."
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : According to Legal Services for
Prisoners with Children, "the sentence increases proposed in SB
702 are likely to result in social costs which significantly
outweigh the social benefit (if any) while also contributing to
increasing the likelihood of those convicted committing
additional offenses thereafter. Both of these results are
obviously undesirable and will exacerbate our already
unconstitutional prison overcrowding problem."
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 78-0, 8/14/14
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, Grove, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Holden, Jones,
Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Linder, Logue, Lowenthal, Maienschein,
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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: Roger Hernández, Vacancy
JG:d 8/15/14 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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