BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 256
Page 1
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB
256 (Jones-Sawyer)
As Amended June 16, 2015
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: | 79-0 |(May 11, 2015) |SENATE: |40-0 |(September 2, |
| | | | | |2015) |
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Original Committee Reference: PUB. S.
SUMMARY: Expands the prohibition against knowingly, willfully,
and intentionally tampering with evidence to include digital
images and video recordings owned by another.
The Senate amendments:
1)Limit the application to video recordings owned by another
person
2)Make clarifying, non-substantive changes.
EXISTING LAW:
AB 256
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1)Makes it a misdemeanor for a person to knowingly, willfully,
and intentionally alter, modify, plant, place, manufacture,
conceal, or move any physical matter, with specific intent
that the action will result in a person being charged with a
crime, or with the specific intent that the physical matter
will be wrongfully produced as genuine or true upon any trial,
proceeding or inquiry.
2)Makes it a felony for a peace officer to knowingly, willfully,
and intentionally alter, modify, plant, place, manufacture,
conceal, or move any physical matter, with specific intent
that the action will result in a person being charged with a
crime, or with the specific intent that the physical matter
will be wrongfully produced as genuine or true upon any trial,
proceeding or inquiry.
3)Provides that every person who, knowing that any book, paper,
record, instrument in writing, or other matter or thing, is
about to be produced in evidence upon any trial, inquiry, or
investigation whatever, authorized by law, willfully destroys
or conceals the same, with intent thereby to prevent it from
being produced, is guilty of a misdemeanor
4)Provides that every peace officer who files any report with
the agency which employs him or her regarding the commission
of any crime or any investigation of any crime, if he or she
knowingly and intentionally makes any statement regarding any
material matter in the report which the officer knows to be
false, is guilty of filing a false report punishable by
imprisonment in the county jail for up to one year, or in the
state prison for one, two, or three years.
5)Provides that every person who reports to any peace officer,
or district attorney, that a felony or misdemeanor has been
committed, knowing the report to be false, is guilty of a
misdemeanor.
AB 256
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AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY, this bill:
1)Specified that the prohibition against any individual
knowingly, willfully, and intentionally tampering with
physical evidence includes tampering with a digital image or
video recording.
2)Specified that the prohibition against a peace officer
knowingly, willfully and intentionally tampering with physical
evidence to charge someone with a crime or to produce as true
evidence at trial includes tampering with a digital image or
video recording.
3)Prohibited a peace officer from knowingly, willfully, and
intentionally tampering with physical matter, a digital image,
or video recording with the specific intent that the item be
unavailable for production.
4)Updated existing law criminalizing a person's destruction or
concealment of a book, paper, record, instrument, or other
matter or thing with the intention of preventing it from being
produced as evidence to include digital images and video
recordings.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee:
1)Potential increase in state costs (General Fund) for felony
convictions resulting in additional commitments to state
prison. While the number of commitments to state prison in
any one year is likely to be minimal, to the extent even one
commitment per year occurs over a two-year period would result
in state costs of $54,000 based on the estimated in-state
AB 256
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contract bed cost per inmate of $27,000 per year.
2)Potential increase in non-reimbursable local enforcement and
incarceration costs, offset to a degree by fine revenue for
new misdemeanor convictions.
COMMENTS: According to the author, "Increasingly, as the public
captures questionable police practices on video, it is critical
that we send a message that altering or deleting these videos
will not be tolerated."
Analysis Prepared by:
Sandy Uribe / PUB. S. / (916) 319-3744 FN:
0001817