BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
AB 913 (Santiago) - Student safety.
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|Version: April 9, 2015 |Policy Vote: ED. 8 - 0 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: Yes |
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|Hearing Date: June 29, 2015 |Consultant: Jillian Kissee |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: This bill expands written agreements between each
college or university campus and respective local law
enforcement agency that clarify operational responsibilities for
investigations of certain crimes to include sexual assault and
hate crimes. It also requires that these agreements be reviewed
by July 1, 2016, and every five years thereafter.
Fiscal
Impact:
California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office
indicates one-time costs of $200,000 which would likely be
reimbursed by the state, to review and update existing
agreements. Ongoing costs to update agreements every fifth
year would be minor and absorbable. Similarly, a potential
reimbursable state mandate could be created for local law
enforcement agencies to participate in reviewing these
agreements. (Proposition 98/General Fund)
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Both the California State University and the University
of California indicate that any cost imposed by this bill
would be minor and absorbable.
Background: The federal Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy
and Campus Crime Statistics Act requires public and private
postsecondary educational institutions that receive federal
financial aid to disclose information about crimes on and around
campuses as well as establish certain rights for victims of
sexual assault.
(United States Code, Title 20, § 1092)
Current state law requires local law enforcement agencies to
enter into written agreements with college or university campus
law enforcement agencies within their jurisdiction to clarify
operational responsibilities for certain violent crimes
occurring on campuses by July 1, 1999. Each written agreement
must designate which law enforcement agency has operational
responsibility for the investigation of each Part 1 violent
crime and delineate the specific geographical boundaries of each
agency's responsibility. This requirement applies to each
community college, California State University, and University
of California campus, and independent postsecondary institution.
Part 1 violent crimes are defined as willful homicide, forcible
rape, robbery, and aggravated assault, as defined in the Uniform
Crime Reporting Handbook of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Current law also expresses the Legislature's intent to provide
the public with clear information regarding the operational
responsibilities for the investigation of crimes occurring on
university and college campuses. (Education Code § 67381)
Existing state law requires, as a condition for participation in
the state student financial aid program, the governing board of
each community college district, the Trustees of the California
State University, the Regents of the University of California,
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and the governing board of each private and independent
postsecondary institution to adopt and implement written
policies and procedures, by July 1, 2015, to ensure that any
report of a Part 1 violent crime, sexual assault, or hate crime,
committed on or off campus, received by a campus security
authority, and made by the victim for purposes of notifying the
institution or law enforcement, is immediately, or as soon as
practicably possible, forwarded to the appropriate law
enforcement agency. (Education Code § 67383)
Proposed Law:
This bill requires that written agreements between college or
university campuses and respective local law enforcement
agencies include operational responsibilities for investigations
regarding sexual assault and hate crimes. This bill also
requires that these agreements be reviewed, updated if
necessary, and made publicly available by July 1, 2016, and
every five years thereafter.
This bill defines hate crime as any offense described in Section
422.55 of the Penal Code which includes, but is not limited to,
a criminal act committed, related to one or more of the
following characteristics of the victim: disability, gender,
nationality, race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or
association with a person or group with one or more of these
actual or perceived characteristics.
This bill defines sexual assault as including, but not limited
to, rape, forced sodomy, forced oral copulation, rape by a
foreign object, sexual battery, or threat of any of these.
Related
Legislation: AB 636 (Medina, 2015) requires postsecondary
education institutions to disclose the identity of an alleged
assailant to law enforcement if the institution determines that
the alleged assailant represents a serious or ongoing threat to
the safety of the campus community and the immediate assistance
of law enforcement is necessary. AB 636 is pending in the
Senate Public Safety Committee.
AB 967 (Williams, 2015) requires private and public
postsecondary institutions, as a condition of receiving state
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funds for student financial aid, to adopt and implement for each
campus a uniform process for disciplinary proceedings relating
to any claims of sexual assault. AB 967 is pending referral in
the Senate Education Committee.
Staff
Comments: Chapter 284, Statutes of 1998 (SB 1729) created the
initial requirement for local law enforcement agencies to enter
into written agreements with campus law enforcement agencies
designating operational responsibility for the investigation of
violent crimes, make them available to the public by July 1999,
and submit them to the Legislative Analyst by September 1999.
The Commission on State Mandates determined Chapter 284 to
impose the following four activities that constitute a
reimbursable state mandate for community colleges:
Preparing the written agreements, or
Reviewing and modifying existing agreements to conform
with the law
Placing agreements in a place of public viewing and
transmitting them to the Legislative Analyst, and
Training staff on implementing the above activities.
According to the most recent State Controller's Office annual
unpaid claims and deficiency report referencing law enforcement
and college jurisdiction agreements, unpaid annual claims ranged
from $102,000 to $179,000 over a five year span. This mandate
is currently suspended and therefore its requirements are
optional.
AB 913 adds sexual assault and hate crimes to the offenses that
must be included in written agreements with local enforcement
agencies that clarify operational responsibilities for
investigations of those offenses. The California Community
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College Chancellor's Office estimates one-time staff costs to
update agreements to comply with this bill to be $200,000
statewide. Actual costs would vary by campus depending on
whether existing agreements already include the requirements of
this bill and to the extent community college districts actually
submit claims. In addition, any costs incurred to update
agreements every five years could be reimbursable to the extent
a community college district, or group of districts submitting a
consolidated claim, incur costs above the $1,000 threshold.
However, the Chancellor's Office anticipates these costs to be
minor. In addition, since the state currently funds community
college mandates through an optional block grant, this bill
could create pressure to increase the block grant amount to
account for any mandate cost that may be derived from this bill.
Finally, staff notes that local law enforcement agencies could
be eligible to submit a reimbursable mandate claim for
comparable activities to work with colleges and universities to
update agreements to include additional offenses. However, a
claim related to the previous mandate was not submitted by local
law enforcement agencies.
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