BILL ANALYSIS Ó SENATE COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND HOUSING Senator Jim Beall, Chair 2015 - 2016 Regular Bill No: AB 8 Hearing Date: 6/23/2015 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Author: |Gatto | |----------+------------------------------------------------------| |Version: |12/1/2014 REVISED | ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes | ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Consultant|Eric Thronson | |: | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- SUBJECT: Emergency services: hit-and-run incidents DIGEST: This bill establishes the "Yellow Alert" notification system and authorizes the California Highway Patrol (CHP) to activate the system for certain hit-and-run incidents. ANALYSIS: Existing law: 1)Authorizes use of the Emergency Alert System (EAS), a national public warning system that requires broadcasters, cable television systems, wireless cable systems, satellite digital audio radio service providers, and direct broadcast satellite providers, for "AMBER Alerts," a program designed to aid in the recovery of an abducted child or an individual with a proven mental or physical disability when all of the following conditions have been met: a) A law enforcement agency determines that the victim is in imminent danger of serious bodily injury or death; and b) There is information available that, if disseminated to the general public, could assist in the safe recovery of the victim. AB 8 (Gatto) Page 2 of ? 1)Requires CHP, in consultation with others, to develop policies and procedures to instruct agencies how to carry out an AMBER Alert. 2)Authorizes use of the EAS for "Blue Alerts," a quick-response system designed to issue and coordinate alerts when a law enforcement officer has been killed or is seriously injured and when all the following conditions have been met: a) The suspect has fled the scene and poses an imminent threat to public safety; b) A detailed description of the suspect's vehicle or license plate is available for broadcasting; and c) There is information available that, if disseminated to the general public, could help avert further harm or accelerate apprehension of the suspect. 1)Establishes a "Silver Alert" notification system, designed to issue and coordinate alerts if a person that is age 65 years or older, developmentally disabled, or cognitively impaired is missing and if the following conditions have been met: a) A law enforcement agency has used all available local resources to locate the missing person; b) The missing person is believed to be in danger because AB 8 (Gatto) Page 3 of ? of, for example, health or weather conditions; and c) It has been determined that the public dissemination of information may lead to a safe recovery of the missing person. This bill: 1)Establishes the "Yellow Alert" notification system and authorizes CHP to activate the system for certain hit-and-run incidents. 2)Defines a Yellow Alert as a notification designed to issue and coordinate alerts that enlist the public in locating hit-and-run suspects when a hit-and-run incident results in death or injury. 3)Authorizes a law enforcement agency to request that CHP activate a Yellow Alert if certain identifying information about the hit-and-run suspect or the suspect's vehicle is available and if law enforcement believes that public dissemination of the available information will aid in apprehending the suspect or averting further harm. 4)Requires the CHP, if it concurs that Yellow Alert activation requirements are met, to issue a Yellow Alert via local digital signs within the geographic area requested by the investigating law enforcement agency. COMMENTS: 1)Purpose. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that the number of hit-and-run accidents is increasing nationally. According to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, one in five of all pedestrian fatalities involve AB 8 (Gatto) Page 4 of ? hit-and-run accidents and 60% of hit-and-run fatalities have pedestrian victims. Additionally, USA Today writes that in 2013 an estimated 20,000 hit-and-run incidents occur each year in the City of Los Angeles alone and 4,000 of these incidents involved injuries or death. To address this problem, the author has introduced this bill, which is modeled after legislation in Colorado (Medina Alert) that has been instrumental in locating hit-and-run suspects. Specifically, this bill would create a Yellow Alert notification system, similar to California's successful AMBER Alert system, that would authorize CHP to activate digital highway signage (as well as other electronic messaging systems) when there is information available to locate hit-and-run suspects. The Yellow Alert notification system would provide the public with information about the hit-and-run suspect and/or the suspect's vehicle and request that the public be on the lookout and report information to law enforcement. 2)Emergency alert system background. The nation's first AMBER Alert was established in 1996, and named after 9-year-old Amber Hagerman who was kidnapped while riding her bicycle and brutally murdered in Arlington, Texas. The alert system was intended to help inform local residents to search for a child who was abducted nearby. AMBER is an acronym for America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response. The alerts were initially issued over broadcasting channels designed to alert residents of dangerous weather events, but since then they have grown to include highway billboard signs, text messages, and other notification methods. Although the federal government does not have direct control over the system, several federal agencies have urged states to implement it. The U.S. Department of Justice created an AMBER Alert page, and issued guidance to states to establish criteria before issuing an alert, including that the victim be at risk of serious bodily injury or death, a sufficient description to be informative is included, and that law enforcement must confirm there was an abduction, among others. California began the AMBER Alert as a regional program in 1999, and in 2002 the Legislature passed AB 415 (Runner, Chapter 517) establishing it statewide. As of February 2014, AB 8 (Gatto) Page 5 of ? there have been 219 activations in California, 255 recovered victims and 131 suspects arrested. The CHP is responsible for statewide coordination of the AMBER Alert system. In 2010, SB 839 (Runner, Chapter 311) expanded the alert system to include Blue Alerts which allow the CHP to initiate a quick response to coordinate alerts following an attack on a law enforcement officer if the officer was killed, suffered serious bodily injury, or was assaulted with a deadly weapon and the suspect remains at large. Finally, in 2012 the Legislature established the Silver Alert program through SB 1047 (Alquist, Chapter 651), to coordinate communication after the unexplained or suspicious disappearance of an elderly person. The system is intended to provide immediate attention to the public about the missing person, including photographs, descriptions, and information about the last time and location they were seen. The Legislature has since expanded the program to include any developmentally disabled or cognitively impaired individual that otherwise meets the requirements, regardless of the person's age. 3)Are hit-and-runs appropriate for the alert system? For cases in which current law authorizes an emergency alert, the primary imperative is to prevent imminent danger. For an AMBER Alert to be issued, a law enforcement agency must first assess if the victim is "in imminent danger of serious bodily injury or death" and whether the widespread dissemination of pertinent information to the public would assist in the safe recovery of the victim. Similarly, a Silver Alert can only be issued when a person 65 years of age or older is reported missing and determined by the law enforcement agency to be in potential danger due to age or a variety of other factors. Additionally, an offending suspect needs to be considered an imminent threat to the public or other law enforcement personnel before a Blue Alert can be initiated after a violent attack on a law enforcement officer. Alternatively, law enforcement suggests that hit-and-run offenders typically try to hide and hope they cannot be identified. This appears to be one example of how hit-and-run incidents may not be appropriate for the alert system. Further, the inherent nature of hit-and-run incidents leads to information about the suspect or the suspect's vehicle being AB 8 (Gatto) Page 6 of ? unavailable or unverifiable. In a missing person's case, once a law enforcement agency decides to request an Amber or Silver Alert, the agency often has access to an accurate description of the missing person, if not a photograph or digital image, that confers a high degree of certainty in the information being disseminated to the public about the missing person. In essence, it is easier to identify and verify the person for whom the public should be on alert. For hit-and-run incidents, the investigating law enforcement agency may have limited information available that cannot be verified. If law enforcement has the suspect's identifying information necessary to institute a Yellow Alert, it seems reasonable that law enforcement can use that information to apprehend the suspect without needing to post the information on a changeable message sign. Given this, it is unclear how hit-and-runs are appropriate for the state's alert system. 4)Distracted driving concerns. A variety of constituencies have conducted distracted driving studies focused on a number of potential distractions. There are studies that use data to prove illuminated billboards do not lead to negative outcomes, and other studies that refute these conclusions. Nearly all studies admit that, in most instances, it is very difficult to identify one single factor that led to an adverse incident such as an automobile accident. Research tends to show that accidents arise from an accumulation of factors, including distractions in the vehicle and outside, weather conditions, and even distracting thoughts within the driver's mind. It is clear, however, that billboards by their very nature capture a driver's attention. Advertising is intended to communicate a message to the recipient, which requires some attention. One recent study of driver behavior conducted by the Accident Research Center at Monash University concluded that "the presence of billboards changed drivers' pattern of visual attention, increased the amount of time needed for drivers to respond to road signs, and increased the number of errors in the driving task." Other studies using naturalistic driving data have found that, of all the various distractions contributing to poor driving outcomes, visual distraction is the primary concern in driver distraction. This bill proposes that the state use its digital billboards to advertise to the public an alert. While illuminated billboards may not by themselves lead to adverse safety AB 8 (Gatto) Page 7 of ? impacts, it is clear that they contribute to the multiple distractions drivers navigate each day. Adding distractions, especially ones that are particularly effective at drawing one's attention, can only increase the risk of negative outcomes. The question is not whether these alerts on the state's changeable message signs cause accidents and other negative consequences, but how many distractions are enough to create an environment potentially too risky and dangerous for people traveling from one place to another. 5)CHP opposition. In a letter dated May 15, 2015, the CHP Commissioner informed the author that CHP opposes this bill for three reasons. First, CHP is concerned that this bill would significantly increase the total number of alerts displayed on the state's changeable message signs. CHP asserts that this will decrease the effectiveness of the AMBER Alert system, as it will desensitize the public and reduce its attention to the most serious child abduction cases for which the alert system is currently deployed. The increased number of alerts could also lead to increased driver distraction and more dangerous highways. Second, CHP states that it anticipates a significant decrease in the number of hit-and-run collisions due to the implementation of legislation allowing previously unlicensed drivers the ability to obtain a driver's license. Having in possession a driver's license reduces the incentive for fleeing an accident, and therefore there should be fewer hit-and-runs. Finally, CHP expresses concern that nothing in statute prioritizes the various alerts, and that can become problematic for CHP if they are put in the position of determining which alert to post on a changeable message sign when they get more than one at a time. 6)Previously vetoed legislation. AB 47 (Gatto) of 2014, which was identical to this bill, was vetoed by Governor Brown on the grounds that similar legislation adding developmentally disabled persons to the alert system had just been signed. The Governor pointed out in his veto message that expansion of the system should be tested before other categories of individuals are added. In light of Governor Brown's apparent feeling about expanding the alert system, the committee may wish to consider why this bill may have a different fate than AB 8 (Gatto) Page 8 of ? last year's effort. 7)Proposed amendments. As noted previously, if CHP concurs that certain conditions are met, this bill requires them to issue the Yellow Alert on local digital signs. In other "alert" legislation, CHP is given the option to use digital signs but is not mandated to do so. There are certainly instances in which CHP may determine that posting these messages on digital signs serves no real purpose, and yet under this bill CHP has no discretion in the matter. If the committee chooses to pass this bill, to resolve this issue and to be consistent with other "alert" legislation, the committee may wish to amend the bill to give CHP the discretion to determine when to post the alert on digital signs. This bill references local digital signs for use with these Yellow Alerts. It isn't entirely clear what local digital signs are, however, because in statute and practice we have no definition for such. If the author means for CHP to activate the changeable message signs operated by Caltrans on the state highway system, then the bill should be specific. If the committee chooses to pass this bill, it may wish to amend the bill to replace "local digital signs" with "changeable message signs." 8)Double-referral. The Rules Committee has referred this bill to both this committee and the Public Safety Committee. Therefore, if the bill passes this committee, it will be referred to the Committee on Public Safety. Related Legislation: AB 400 (Alejo) - authorizes the use of changeable message signs for voter registration and Election Day reminders. This bill is also being heard in this committee today. AB 643 (Nazarian) - authorizes the CHP, upon activation of a Silver Alert, to communicate the Alert on highway changeable message signs under certain conditions. This bill is also being heard in this committee today. AB 47 (Gatto, Statutes of 2014) - which was identical to this bill, was vetoed by Governor Brown. The Governor pointed out in AB 8 (Gatto) Page 9 of ? his veto message that expansion of the system should be tested before other categories of individuals are added. SB 1127 (Torres, Chapter 440, Statutes of 2014) - included a missing person who is developmentally disabled or cognitively impaired among persons who may be the subject of a Silver Alert. SB 1047 (Alquist, Chapter 651, Statutes of 2012) - established California's Silver Alert System. SB 839 (Runner, Chapter 311 of 2010) - established California's Blue Alert System. Assembly Votes: Floor: 79-0 Appr: 17-0 Pub S: 7-0 Trans: 16-0 FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes Local: No POSITIONS: (Communicated to the committee before noon on Wednesday, June 17, 2015.) SUPPORT: ABATE of California American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees American Motorcyclist Association Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs California Bicycle Coalition California Council of the Blind California Police Chiefs Association California State Firefighters' Association California Walks City of Los Angeles, Office of the Mayor Emergency Nurses Association Inland Empire Biking Alliance Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition Los Angeles Walks Matco Inc. Construction and Restoration AB 8 (Gatto) Page 10 of ? Nick's Computer Works People Power of Santa Cruz County Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates Safe Routes to Shool National Partnership San Diego County Bicycle Coalition San Francisco Bicycle Coalition San Luis Obispo County Bicycle Coalition Shasta Living Streets Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition Transportation Authority of Marin Walk and Bike Mendocino 6 individuals OPPOSITION: California Highway Patrol -- END --