BILL ANALYSIS Ó ----------------------------------------------------------------- |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 1454| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |1020 N Street, Suite 524 | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- THIRD READING Bill No: SB 1454 Author: Gaines (R) Amended: 5/27/14 Vote: 21 SENATE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE : 6-0, 4/29/14 AYES: Hancock, Anderson, Knight, Liu, Mitchell, Steinberg NO VOTE RECORDED: De León SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 7-0, 5/23/14 AYES: De León, Walters, Gaines, Hill, Lara, Padilla, Steinberg SUBJECT : Fish and Wildlife: enforcement: patrol mounted vehicle video and audio systems SOURCE : Author DIGEST : This bill authorizes the Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) officers to have dashboard cameras in their vehicles, as specified. ANALYSIS : Existing law: 1. Charges the DFW with the administration and enforcement of the Fish and Game Code. 2. States that all employees of the DFW designated by the CONTINUED SB 1454 Page 2 director as deputized law enforcement officers are peace officers, as specified. 3. Makes it a crime for a person, intentionally, and without requisite consent to eavesdrop on a confidential communication by means of any electronic amplifying or recording device. (Penal Code Section 632.) 4.Exempts from this crime a number of law enforcement agencies from the prohibition in Penal Code Section 632, including the Attorney General (AG), any district attorney, or any assistant, deputy, or investigator of the AG or any district attorney, any officer of the California Highway Patrol, any chief of police, assistant chief of police, or police officer of a city or city and county, any sheriff, undersheriff, or deputy sheriff regularly employed and paid in that capacity by a county, police officer of the County of Los Angeles, or any person acting pursuant to the direction of one of these law enforcement officers acting within the scope of his/her authority. This bill: 1.Allows DWF to install vehicle mounted video and audio systems in patrol vehicles used by wardens. The warden may use the system to record communications and other actions involving the warden acting within the scope of his/her authority. 2.Requires DWF to adopt a policy to establish standards regarding the activation of the video and audio system and the preservation and retention of recordings subject to the following requirements: A. Once a patrol vehicle mounted video and audio system has been activated, the patrol vehicle mounted video and audio system shall record the duration of an encounter. B. DWF shall retain a recording from a patrol vehicle mounted video and audio system for a minimum of 90 days and a maximum of one year, except if the recording is necessary for a pending, or reasonably foreseeable civil or criminal action, or for training or administrative purposes. CONTINUED SB 1454 Page 3 C. DWF shall provide access to a recording from a patrol vehicle mounted video and audio system in accordance with all other provisions of law. FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes Local: No According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, cost pressures, in the low millions of dollars, to the General Fund and various special funds to DFW, for dashboard cameras and associated support equipment and staffing. SUPPORT : (Verified 5/27/14) California Fish and Game Wardens' Association California Fish and Game Wardens' Supervisors and Managers Association OPPOSITION : (Verified 5/27/14) American Civil Liberties Union of California ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author: Although other law enforcement agencies have increasingly installed dashboard mounted dashboard cameras in their patrol vehicles, it is unclear whether California law authorizes their use by Wildlife Officers employed by the Department. Recording communications between Wildlife Officers, suspects, and witnesses creates an unbiased record of these contacts that leads to more accurate and complete information being included in investigative reports and made available to attorneys in civil and criminal proceedings. Recording law enforcement contacts is also an important tool in preventing misconduct on the part of officers, training officers in proper safety and constituent contact procedures, and defending Wildlife Officers and agencies from frivolous lawsuits. ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : American Civil Liberties Union CONTINUED SB 1454 Page 4 states, that this bill falls short of protecting Californians in that it is silent on when peace officers may turn the cameras on and off. One presumes then that the decision on powering the camera is left to the individual peace officer. This place a great deal of control in the peace officers' hands and leave Californian's rights vulnerable to creative editing of video. This is not hypothetical. In Seattle in 2010, two men filed a claim of excessive force and wrongful arrest. Part of the arrest was captured by a dashboard camera; however, critical moments of the arrest were mysteriously missing from the video. In Oakland in 2011 an officer powered off his colleague's body-mounted camera during an encounter with protestors. SB 1454 needs amending to ensure that patrol vehicle mounted video and audio systems are being used at all times during all encounters with the public and the peace officers cannot engage in creative editing. This bill falls short in other ways as well. This bill is silent on Californians' access to video of incidents involving themselves and delineates no requirements on data retention. JG:d 5/27/14 Senate Floor Analyses SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE **** END **** CONTINUED