BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 953
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB
953 (Weber)
As Amended June 1, 2015
Majority vote
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|Committee |Votes |Ayes |Noes |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|----------------+------+--------------------+--------------------|
|Public Safety |5-2 |Quirk, |Melendez, Lackey |
| | |Jones-Sawyer, Low, | |
| | |Santiago, Thurmond | |
| | | | |
|----------------+------+--------------------+--------------------|
|Appropriations |12-5 |Gomez, Bonta, |Bigelow, Chang, |
| | |Calderon, Daly, |Gallagher, Jones, |
| | |Eggman, |Wagner |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | |Eduardo Garcia, | |
| | |Gordon, Holden, | |
| | |Quirk, Rendon, | |
| | |Weber, Wood | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY: Modifies the definition of "racial profiling;" requires
local law enforcement agencies to report specified information on
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stops to the Attorney General's office; and establishes the Racial
and Identity Profiling Advisory Board (RIPA). Specifically, this
bill:
1)Requires, beginning March 1, 2018, each state and local agency
that employs peace officers to annually report to the Attorney
General's office data on all stops, as specified, conducted by
that agency's peace officers for the preceding calendar year.
2)Requires the reporting to include the following information for
each stop:
a) The reason for the stop;
b) The result of the stop, such as no action, warning,
citation, property seizure, or arrest;
c) If a warning or citation was issued, the warning provided or
violation cited;
d) If an arrest was made, the offense charged;
e) The perceived race or ethnicity, gender, and approximate age
of the person stopped. The identification of these
characteristics shall be based on the observation and
perception of the peace officer making the stop. For auto
stops, this requirement applies only to the driver unless
actions taken by the officer apply in relation to a passenger,
in which case his or her characteristics shall also be
reported.
f) Actions taken by the officer during the stop, including, but
not limited to, the following:
i) Whether the officer asked for consent to search the
person, and if so, whether consent was provided;
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ii) Whether the officer searched the person or any property,
and if so, the basis for the search, and the type of
contraband or evidence discovered, if any; and
iii) Whether the officer seized any property and, if so, the
type of property that was seized, and the basis for seizing
the property.
3)Provides that if more than one peace officer performs a stop, only
one officer is required to collect and report the necessary
information.
4)Prohibits state and local law enforcement agencies from reporting
the name, address, social security number, or other unique
personal identifying information of persons stopped, searched, or
subjected to a property seizure.
5)States that, notwithstanding any other law, the data reported
shall be made available to the public to the extent which release
is permissible under state law, with the exception of badge
number, or other unique identifying information of the officer
involved.
6)Requires the Attorney General, to issue regulations for the
collection and reporting of the required data by January 1, 2017.
The Attorney General should consult with specified stakeholders in
issuing the regulations.
7)Mandates that the regulations specify all data to be reported, and
provide standards, definitions, and technical specifications to
ensure uniform reporting practices. To the extent possible, the
regulations should also be compatible with any similar federal
data collection or reporting program.
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8)Requires each state and local law enforcement agency to publicly
report the data on an annual basis beginning on July 1, 2018. The
report should be posted on the law enforcement agency's Web site,
and in the event the agency does not have a Web site, it shall be
posted on the Department of Justice (DOJ) Web site.
9)Requires retention of the reported data for at least five years.
10)Mandates that the Attorney General annually analyze the data
collected and report its findings from the first analysis by
January 1, 2019. Reports are to be posted on the DOJ Web site.
11)Specifies that all data and reports made under these provisions
are public records, as specified, and are open to public
inspection.
12)Limits the definition of a "peace officer" for purposes of this
section to "members of the California Highway Patrol, a city or
county law enforcement agency, except probation officers and
officers in a custodial setting, and California state or
university educational institutions."
13)Defines "stop" for purposes of this section, as "any detention by
a peace officer of a person, or any peace officer interaction with
a person in which the peace officer conducts a search, including a
consensual search, of the person's body or property in the
person's possession or control."
14)Revises the content of the DOJ annual report on criminal
statistics to report the total number of each of the following
citizen complaints:
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a) Citizen complaints against law enforcement personnel;
b) Citizen complaints alleging criminal conduct of either a
felony or misdemeanor;
c) Citizen complaints alleging racial or identity profiling,
disaggregated by the specific type of racial or identity
profiling alleged.
15)Specifies that the statistics on citizen complaints must identify
their dispositions as being sustained, exonerated, not sustained,
unfounded, as specified.
16)Revises legislative findings and declarations regarding racial
and identity profiling.
17)Renames "racial profiling" as "racial or identity profiling" and
redefines it as "consideration of or reliance on, to any degree,
actual or perceived race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age,
religion, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or
mental or physical disability in deciding which persons to subject
to a stop or in deciding upon the scope and substance of law
enforcement activities following a stop. The activities include,
but are not limited to, traffic or pedestrian stops, or actions
during a stop, such as, asking questions, frisks, consensual and
nonconsensual searches of a person or any property, seizing any
property, removing vehicle occupants during a traffic stop,
issuing a citation, and making an arrest."
18)Requires any peace officer who has a sustained complaint of
racial or identity profiling that is sustained to participate in
training to correct racial and identity profiling at least every
six months for two years.
19)Mandates the Attorney General establish RIPA beginning July 1,
2016, for the purpose of eliminating racial and identity
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profiling, and improving diversity and racial sensitivity in law
enforcement.
20)Provides that RIPA shall include the following members:
a) The Attorney General, or a designee;
b) The President of the California Public Defenders
Association, or a designee;
c) The President of the California Police Chiefs Association,
or a designee;
d) The President of the California State Sheriffs' Association,
or a designee;
e) The President of the Peace Officers Research Association of
California, or a designee;
f) The President of the California Association of Highway
Patrolmen, or a designee;
g) The Chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus, or
designee;
h) The Chair of the California Latino Legislative Caucus, or
designee;
i) The Chair of the California Asian and Pacific Islander
Legislative Caucus, or designee;
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j) The Chair of the California Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and
Transgender Legislative Caucus, or designee;
aa) A university professor who specializes in policing, and
racial and identity equity;
bb) Two representatives of civil or human rights tax-exempt
organizations who specialize in civil and human rights and
criminal justice;
cc) Two representatives of community organizations specializing
in civil or human rights and criminal justice and who work with
victims of racial and identity profiling;
dd) Two clergy members who specialize in addressing and reducing
racial and identity bias toward individuals and groups or
practices; and,
ee) Up to two other members that the Attorney General may
prescribe.
21)Tasks RIPA with the following:
a) Analyzing data reported, as specified;
b) Analyzing law enforcement training on racial and identity
profiling;
c) Work in partnership with state and local law enforcement
agencies to review and analyze racial and identity profiling
policies and practices;
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d) Issuing an annual report the first of which shall be issued
by January 1, 2018, and posting the reports on its Internet Web
site; and,
e) Holding at least three annual public meetings to discuss
racial and identity profiling and potential reforms, as
specified.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Prohibits a law enforcement officer from engaging in racial
profiling.
2)Defines "racial profiling," as "the practice of detaining a
suspect based on a broad set of criteria which casts suspicion on
an entire class of people without any individualized suspicion of
the particular person being stopped."
3)Requires that the course of basic training for law enforcement
officers include adequate instruction on racial and cultural
diversity in order to foster mutual respect and cooperation
between law enforcement and members of all racial and cultural
groups.
4)Requires the DOJ to present to the Governor, on or before July
1st, an annual report containing the criminal statistics of the
preceding calendar year.
5)Mandates that the annual report contain statistics showing all of
the following:
a) The amount and the types of offenses known to the public
authorities;
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b) The personal and social characteristics of criminals and
delinquents;
c) The administrative actions taken by law enforcement,
judicial, penal, and correctional agencies or institutions,
including those in the juvenile justice system, in dealing with
criminals or delinquents;
d) The administrative actions taken by law enforcement,
prosecutorial, judicial, penal, and correctional agencies,
including those in the juvenile justice system, in dealing with
minors who are the subject of a petition or hearing in the
juvenile court to transfer their case to the jurisdiction of an
adult criminal court or whose cases are directly filed or
otherwise initiated in an adult criminal court; and,
e) The number of citizens' complaints received by law
enforcement agencies, as specified. The statistics must
indicate the total number of these complaints, the number
alleging criminal conduct of either a 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.
6)Requires state and local law enforcement agencies to report
statistical data to the DOJ at those times and in the manner that
the Attorney General prescribes.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee:
1)Significant reimbursable mandated costs (GF), in the hundreds of
thousands of dollars, by requiring the collection of very specific
additional information by local law enforcement personnel, and the
reporting of this information by local law enforcement agencies to
the DOJ.
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2)Significant costs to the California Highway Patrol to update their
California Automated Reporting System, in the $1 million range
(Motor Vehicle Account). In addition, the additional time
required to document the additional data points will result in the
need for additional officers, or the current service provided will
be reduced. CHP made over four million public contacts in
2013-14.
3)Significant cost to the DOJ in the range of $2 million in 2015-16,
$10 million in 2016-17, and $9 million every year thereafter.
4)Cost to the Commission on Peace Officers Standards and Training
(POST) is absorbable if POST can update this definition the next
time it updates its racial profiling curriculum.
COMMENTS: According to the author, "AB 953 will help eliminate the harmful
and unjust practice of racial and identity profiling, and improve
the relationship between law enforcement and the communities they
serve. AB 953 promotes equal protection and prevents unreasonable
searches and seizures.
"Peace officers risk their lives every day, and the people of
California greatly appreciate their hard work and dedication to
public safety. At the same time, a recent poll shows that 55% of
Californians and 85% of African-Americans in California believe that
'blacks and other minorities do not receive equal treatment in the
criminal justice system. Racial and identity profiling significantly
contributes to this lack of confidence in our justice system.
"Racial and identity profiling occurs when law enforcement personnel
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stop, search, seize property from, or interrogate a person without
evidence of criminal activity. Studies show that profiling often
occurs due to unconscious biases about particular demographic
identities.
"AB 953 would prevent profiling by, among other things, clarifying
and modernizing California's current prohibition against profiling
to better account for the ways in which profiling occurs,
establishing a uniform system for collecting and analyzing data on
law enforcement-community interactions, and establishing an advisory
board that investigates profiling patterns and practices and
provides recommendations on how to curb its harmful impact."
Analysis Prepared by:
Sandy Uribe / PUB. S. / (916) 319-3744 FN: 0000738