BILL NUMBER: AB 525	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Holden

                        FEBRUARY 23, 2015

   An act to amend Section 7563 of the Business and Professions Code,
relating to private investigators, and declaring the urgency
thereof, to take effect immediately.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 525, as introduced, Holden. Private Investigators: fines.
   The Private Investigator Act provides for the licensure and
regulation of private investigators by the Bureau of Security and
Investigative Services within the Department of Consumer Affairs and
makes a violation of the licensing requirements a crime. The act
authorizes the Director of Consumer Affairs to impose a civil penalty
of no greater than $500 instead of suspending or revoking a license
issued under the act for the violation of specified provisions if the
director determines that the imposition of the civil penalty better
serves the purposes of the act.
   This bill would increase that civil penalty to an amount no
greater than $1,000 instead of $500.
   This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as
an urgency statute.
   Vote: 2/3. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no. State-mandated
local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 7563 of the Business and Professions Code is
amended to read:
   7563.  The director, in lieu of suspending or revoking a license
issued under this chapter for violations of Sections 7561.1, 7561.3,
and 7561.4, may impose a civil penalty not to exceed  five
hundred   one thousand  dollars ($500)
  ($1,000)  upon a licensee, if the director
determines that this action better serves the purposes of this
chapter.
  SEC. 2.  This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate
preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the
meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into immediate
effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
   In order to enable the Director of Consumer Affairs to provide
increased protection to consumers from unscrupulous private
investigators at the earliest possible time it is necessary that this
act take effect immediately.