BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 619
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Date of Hearing: May 13, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Jimmy Gomez, Chair
AB
619 (Weber) - As Amended April 15, 2015
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: YesReimbursable:
Yes
SUMMARY:
This bill, for purposes of reporting the death of person under
custody of any law enforcement agency, redefines "custody" to
include any point in time when a person's freedom of movement is
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curtailed. Also, beginning January 1, 2018, this bill requires
law enforcement agencies to report incidents of use of force, as
defined, to the Attorney General (AG), and to report specific
information regarding deaths in custody and use of force
incidents. The bill requires the AG to issue and post an annual
a report containing this information.
FISCAL EFFECT:
1)Significant reimbursable state mandated costs (GF) in the
hundreds of thousands of dollars for local law enforcement
agencies to report the additional specified data elements for
the expanded death in "custody" and "use of force" incidents.
2)Significant costs to the California Department of Corrections
and Rehabilitation (CDCR) in the range of $3.3 million (GF) to
hire a staff person at each facility to report the additional
information on use of force incidents. CDCR notes that
"perceived" information may be difficult to note when several
officers are focused on securing a dangerous situation that
merits the use of force, including batons and pepper spray.
3)Significant costs (GF) to the Department of Justice (DOJ) to
collect and report the expanded data points on deaths in
custody and use of force incidents.
4)Unknown minor special fund costs to CHP to provide additional
information to the reports they already submit on deaths in
custody and use of force. [Motor Vehicle Account].
COMMENTS:
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1)Purpose. According to the author, "Peace officers risk their
lives daily, and the people of California greatly appreciate
their hard work and dedication to public safety. Recently,
the President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing, FBI
Director James Comey, state Attorney General Kamala Harris,
and the people of California have all expressed a significant
interest in strengthening police-community relationships
through adopting evidenced-based approaches to public safety.
In furtherance of this goal, AB 619 would enhance transparency
by ensuring that death in custody and law enforcement use of
force data is regularly made available to the public."
The purpose of this bill is to address the deficiency of data
on police use of force and to enhance transparency by ensuring
that the data is made available to the public.
2)Background. Current law requires 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 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.
Current law also requires each sheriff and chief of police to
annually furnish the DOJ, in the manner prescribed by the
Attorney General, a report of all justifiable homicides
committed in his or her jurisdiction.
DOJ is statutorily required to collect and maintain data and
develop statistical reports related to crime and the criminal
justice process in California. Local agencies are also
statutorily required to maintain statistical data and provide
those to DOJ. Arrest information from local agencies must
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also be provided to DOJ in order to maintain its arrest and
citation database. This database contains information
including name, race/ethnicity, date of birth, sex, date of
arrest, offense level, offense type, status of the offense,
and law enforcement disposition. Using statistical data from
local jurisdictions, DOJ publishes an annual report on crime,
as well as other reports as required by statute.
This bill requires local law enforcement agencies to report to
DOJ incidents of use of force by its officers. Use of force
refers to any use of force resulting in or contributing to
medical treatment or hospitalization, or when certain weapons
are used such as a firearm or baton. The bill also requires
specified information to be reported about the person upon
whom use of force was used, such as the perceived
characteristics of the person, the setting in which the force
was used, the type of force used, and the type of injury
sustained. This bill also applies these reporting requirements
to the current duty of law enforcement agency to report deaths
in custody.
3)Argument in Support: According to the Youth Justice
Coalition, a co-sponsor of this bill, "In response to the
apparent increase in law enforcement use of force, we sought
data on the number of people killed by law enforcement and was
shocked to find that local law enforcement agencies either
didn't keep accurate data, or didn't release it regularly to
the public. We pulled together homicide data from the
Coroner's Office and combined it with the experiences of
victims' families in order to issue a report on use of force
in Los Angeles County. The data revealed that LA County leads
the nation on officer-involved homicides; at least 618 people
have been killed since 2000.
"AB 619 will expand the current death in custody reporting
requirement to include use of force that results in serious
bodily injury. It would also ensure that the public has
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regular access to important facts concerning law enforcement
use of force practices."
4)Related Legislation:
a) AB 71 (Rodriguez), currently in the Committee's Suspense
file, requires local law enforcement agencies to annually
furnish a report to DOJ of all instances when a peace
officer is involved in shootings that occur in his or her
jurisdiction, where an individual or a peace officer is
injured or killed and requires DOJ to include a summary of
the information received in its annual crime report.
b) AB 86 (McCarty), also on today's agenda, requires DOJ to
conduct an independent investigation if a peace officer, in
the performance of his or her duties, uses deadly physical
force upon another person and that person dies as a result
of the use of that deadly force, and would require DOJ to
prepare and submit a written report setting forth specified
information and recommendations.
c) AB 953 (Weber), pending a hearing in this Committee,
established RIPA to eliminate racial and identity profiling
and improve diversity and racial sensitivity in law
enforcement.
d) SB 227 (Mitchell), on Senate Floor, prohibits the use of
a grand jury in cases of officer-involved shootings or in
cases where excessive force used by an officer results in
the death of a suspect.
Analysis Prepared by:Pedro R. Reyes / APPR. / (916)
319-2081
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