BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 71
Page 1
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB
71 (Rodriguez)
As Amended September 3, 2015
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |80-0 |(June 1, 2015) |SENATE: |40-0 |(September 8, |
| | | | | |2015) |
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Original Committee Reference: PUB. S.
SUMMARY: Requires each law enforcement agency to annually
furnish to the Department of Justice (DOJ), in a manner defined
and prescribed by the Attorney General (AG), a report of
specified instances when a peace officer employed by that agency
is involved in a use of force incident.
The Senate amendments:
1)Recast the provisions of this bill into the Government Code;
2)Require annual reporting of incidents specified by this bill
to begin January 1, 2017.
3)Specify that the incidents that must be reported are all
instances when a peace officer employed by that agency is
involved in a shooting of a civilian or peace officer or an
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incident in which use of force results in serious bodily
injury or death of either a civilian or a peace officer.
4)Require the information reported DOJ to include, but not be
limited to, all of the following:
a) The gender, race, and age of each individual who was
shot, injured, or killed;
b) The date, time, and location of the incident;
c) Whether the civilian was armed, and, if so, the type of
weapon;
d) The type of force used against the officer, the
civilian, or both, including the types of weapons used;
e) The number of officers involved in the incident;
f) The number of civilians involved in the incident; and,
g) A brief description regarding the circumstances
surrounding the incident, which may include the nature of
injuries to officers and civilians and perceptions on
behavior or mental disorders.
5)Define "serious bodily injury" to mean a bodily injury that
involves a substantial risk of death, unconsciousness,
protracted and obvious disfigurement, or protracted loss or
impairment of the function of a bodily member or organ.
6)Specify that this bill does not authorize the release to the
public of the badge number or other unique identifying
information of the peace officer involved.
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EXISTING LAW:
1)Provides that it is the duty of each city marshal, chief of
police, railroad and steamship police, sheriff, coroner,
district attorney, city attorney and city prosecutor having
criminal jurisdiction, as well as other agencies or persons
dealing with crimes and criminals or with delinquency or
delinquents, when requested by the AG:
a) To install and maintain records needed for the correct
reporting of statistical data required by the AG;
b) To report statistical data to the DOJ at those times and
in the manner that the AG proscribes; and,
c) To give to the AG, or his or her accredited agent,
access to the statistical data for the purpose of carrying
out the purposes of carrying out the relevant law.
2)Requires each sheriff and chief of police to annually furnish
the DOJ, in the manner prescribed by the AG, a report of all
justifiable homicides committed in his or her jurisdiction.
In cases where both a sheriff and chief of police would be
required to report a justifiable homicide under this section,
only the chief of police shall report the homicide.
3)States that, subject to the availability of adequate funding,
the AG shall direct local law enforcement agencies to report
to DOJ, in a manner to be prescribed by the AG, any
information that may be required relative to hate crimes, as
specified, and requires, on or before July 1 of each year, DOJ
to submit a report to the Legislature analyzing the results of
the information obtained from local law enforcement agencies.
4)Includes within DOJ's annual reporting requirements the number
of citizens' complaints received by law enforcement agencies.
These statistics shall indicate the total number of these
complaints, the number alleging criminal conduct of either a
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felony or misdemeanor, and the number sustained in each
category. The report shall not contain a reference to any
individual agency but shall be by gross numbers only.
5)Mandates in any case in which a person dies while in the
custody of any law enforcement agency or while in custody in a
local or state correctional facility in this state, the law
enforcement agency or the agency in charge of the correctional
facility shall report in writing to the AG, within 10 days
after the death, all facts in the possession of the law
enforcement agency or agency in charge of the correctional
facility concerning the death. Proscribes that these writings
are public records within the meaning of the California Public
Records Act and are open to public inspection, except
confidential medical information.
AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY, this bill:
1)Stated that in instances where an individual is killed or
injured, the agency shall report how many cases resulted in
criminal prosecution.
2)Provided in cases where both a sheriff and chief of police
would be required to report an officer involved shooting under
this section, only the chief of police shall report the
instance.
3)Required DOJ to include a summary of the information contained
in the reports received pursuant to the above provisions in
its annual crime report and classify the data according to the
reporting law enforcement jurisdiction.
4)Specified in cases involving a peace officer who is injured or
killed, the report shall list the officer's employing
jurisdiction and the jurisdiction where the injury or death
occurred, if they are not the same.
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FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee:
1)Potentially significant one-time and ongoing
state-reimbursable local costs in the hundreds of thousands of
dollars (General Fund) annually to track and report the
detailed information for each type of incident. Initial costs
would be dependent on the tool prescribed for data reporting
by the DOJ. Annual costs would be dependent on the number of
incidents subject to the reporting requirements and the
associated workload to collect and report this data.
2)One-time significant costs potentially in the hundreds of
thousands of dollars (General Fund) to the DOJ to develop the
database and complete programming to enable reporting of the
specified data by law enforcement agencies. Minor ongoing
costs for DOJ to report the specified incident data for its
own officers.
3)Minor, absorbable impact to the California Highway Patrol
(CHP), Department of State Hospitals (DSH), Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), and the Department of
Fish and Wildlife (DFW), assuming the number of incidents to
be reported is minimal.
COMMENTS: According to the author, "AB 71 was introduced to
collect needed statistics and to start a dialogue as to what
California needs to do to increase community and officer safety
and to improve confidence in law our enforcement agencies and
personnel.
"AB 71 will provide much needed data on officer involved
shootings in California. This will allow the state to study the
issue and to appropriately adjust law enforcement training and
procedures as needed. Through better training standards from
POST (Peace Officer Standards and Training) we can improve
outcomes and foster better relations and confidence with our
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communities.
"AB 71 will also track data on an officer involved shooting
where it is the law enforcement officer that is shot and killed
or injured. Law enforcement work is dangerous and our peace
officers are often placed in situations that involve life and
death decisions. Tracking shootings of law enforcement officers
will give California an idea what our law enforcement officers
are facing on the street."
Analysis Prepared by:
Stella Choe / PUB. S. / (916) 319-3744 FN:
0002200