BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY
Senator Loni Hancock, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: AB 1678 Hearing Date: May 10, 2016
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|Author: |Santiago |
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|Version: |February 25, 2016 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant:|ML |
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Subject: Provision of Incident Reports to Victims
HISTORY
Source: Author
Prior Legislation:AB 403 (Romero) - Ch. 1022, Stats. 1999
Support: California District Attorneys Association;
California Partnership to End Domestic Violence;
California Peace Officers Association; California State
Sheriffs' Association; Crime Victims United of
California
Opposition:None known
Assembly Floor Vote: 76 - 0
PURPOSE
The purpose of this bill is to require that in crimes of sexual
assault, stalking, human trafficking, and elder or dependent
adult abuse, a copy of all incident reports and all incident
report face sheets shall be provided at no cost upon request to
victims or the victims' representative.
Existing law provides that a court may issue a temporary
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restraining order for domestic violence prevention, as
specified. (Family Code §§ 6220, 6300)
Existing law provides that a court may issue a temporary
restraining order for civil harassment, as specified, which may
prevent an abuser from, among other things, stalking and
sexually assaulting the victim. (Code of Civil Procedure §
527.6.)
Existing law provides that a court may issue a temporary
restraining order for elder or dependent adult abuse, as
specified. (Welfare and Institutions Code § 15657.03(c).)
Existing law requires law enforcement to complete a domestic
violence incident report for each domestic violence-related
call, as specified. (Penal Code § 13730.)
Existing law requires law enforcement to provide, without
charge, a copy of all domestic violence incident report face
sheets and all domestic violence incident reports to the victim
of domestic violence or his or her representative, as provided.
Defines who may be a representative for a living or deceased
victim and what that representative must provide to law
enforcement in order to be given a copy of the incident report.
Requires that a copy of the report be provided within 48 hours
of its request, except for good cause, as provided. (Family
Code § 6228.)
Existing law allows a victim of domestic violence, sexual
assault, stalking, human trafficking, or elder or dependent
adult abuse to terminate a residential lease early if he or she
is able to provide the landlord with specified documentation
attesting that he or she is a survivor of abuse or violence.
Permitted documentation includes a restraining order or a copy
of a police report. (Civil Code § 1946.7.)
Existing law protects a victim of domestic violence, sexual
assault, or stalking, as defined, from employment discrimination
and retaliation if the victim provides notice to the employer of
that status or the employer has actual knowledge of that status
and allows the victim to take time off from work, as provided.
Requires, in certain situations, for the employee to provide the
employer with certification of his or her status as a victim and
provides that such certification can include a police report
indicating that the employee is a victim. (Labor Code §§ 230,
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230.1.)
This bill would require state and local law enforcement
agencies, upon request, to provide victims of sexual assault,
stalking, human trafficking or elderly or dependent adult abuse
with one copy of all incident report face sheets and all
incident reports, or both, at no cost to the victim or their
representative.
This bill defines who is considered a representative of the
victim in cases where the victim is alive and not the subject of
a conservatorship, that the representative shall also present a
written authorization, signed by the victim, making him or her
the victim's personal representative.
RECEIVERSHIP/OVERCROWDING CRISIS AGGRAVATION
For the past several years this Committee has scrutinized
legislation referred to its jurisdiction for any potential
impact on prison overcrowding. Mindful of the United States
Supreme Court ruling and federal court orders relating to the
state's ability to provide a constitutional level of health care
to its inmate population and the related issue of prison
overcrowding, this Committee has applied its "ROCA" policy as a
content-neutral, provisional measure necessary to ensure that
the Legislature does not erode progress in reducing prison
overcrowding.
On February 10, 2014, the federal court ordered California to
reduce its in-state adult institution population to 137.5% of
design capacity by February 28, 2016, as follows:
143% of design bed capacity by June 30, 2014;
141.5% of design bed capacity by February 28, 2015; and,
137.5% of design bed capacity by February 28, 2016.
In December of 2015 the administration reported that as "of
December 9, 2015, 112,510 inmates were housed in the State's 34
adult institutions, which amounts to 136.0% of design bed
capacity, and 5,264 inmates were housed in out-of-state
facilities. The current population is 1,212 inmates below the
final court-ordered population benchmark of 137.5% of design bed
capacity, and has been under that benchmark since February
2015." (Defendants' December 2015 Status Report in Response to
February 10, 2014 Order, 2:90-cv-00520 KJM DAD PC, 3-Judge
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Court, Coleman v. Brown, Plata v. Brown (fn. omitted).) One
year ago, 115,826 inmates were housed in the State's 34 adult
institutions, which amounted to 140.0% of design bed capacity,
and 8,864 inmates were housed in out-of-state facilities.
(Defendants' December 2014 Status Report in Response to February
10, 2014 Order, 2:90-cv-00520 KJM DAD PC, 3-Judge Court, Coleman
v. Brown, Plata v. Brown (fn. omitted).)
While significant gains have been made in reducing the prison
population, the state must stabilize these advances and
demonstrate to the federal court that California has in place
the "durable solution" to prison overcrowding "consistently
demanded" by the court. (Opinion Re: Order Granting in Part and
Denying in Part Defendants' Request For Extension of December
31, 2013 Deadline, NO. 2:90-cv-0520 LKK DAD (PC), 3-Judge Court,
Coleman v. Brown, Plata v. Brown (2-10-14). The Committee's
consideration of bills that may impact the prison population
therefore will be informed by the following questions:
Whether a proposal erodes a measure which has contributed
to reducing the prison population;
Whether a proposal addresses a major area of public safety
or criminal activity for which there is no other
reasonable, appropriate remedy;
Whether a proposal addresses a crime which is directly
dangerous to the physical safety of others for which there
is no other reasonably appropriate sanction;
Whether a proposal corrects a constitutional problem or
legislative drafting error; and
Whether a proposal proposes penalties which are
proportionate, and cannot be achieved through any other
reasonably appropriate remedy.
COMMENTS
1.Need for This Bill
According to the author:
State law currently allows domestic violence victims
to request and receive one free copy of their police
report from law enforcement agencies. For victims of
non-domestic violence crimes, police reports are made
available for up to a twenty four dollar fee.
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Currently, local and state agencies are able to decide
how much, if anything, they will charge for a police
reprort. For survivors with limited financial
resources, this is an additional burden to accessing
needed documentation of their victimization. A copy of
the police report can be needed by survivors as
documentation to take time off of work, to terminate
their lease early and relocate for their safety, and
to request a good cause waiver for certain CalWORKs
requirements, among other uses. AB 1678 will allow
victims of sexual assault, stalking, human trafficking
or elder adult abuse, like victims of domestic
violence, to obtain timely police reports free of
charge.
2. Background; Effect of Legislation
California has established various legal avenues to help protect
victims of domestic violence and other similar crimes from
further abuse. Victims can obtain restraining orders, terminate
a lease early and move to a safer location, take time off from
work, without risk of losing their job, to obtain a restraining
order or, for larger employers, to obtain specified services to
increase their safety, such as participation in safety planning
and psychological counseling. Employers are also required to
provide reasonable accommodations to help ensure the safety of
these victims while they are at work.
To obtain these legal protections, victims must prove, whether
to the court, their landlord or their employer, that they are
victims. A method to establish the necessary proof is with a
police report. Police reports may be evidence for a court to
consider when determining whether to issue a protective order
for the victim. Additionally, both the employee and tenancy
termination protections specifically allow the police report as
proof of the underlying abuse.
Historically, victims have had to write and request copies of
these reports, which were then provided by mail, a process that
often took several weeks. In 1999, the Legislature required
that domestic violence victims be provided with an expedited and
affordable method for obtaining these reports. However, current
law does not require that victims of sexual assault, stalking,
human trafficking or elderly or dependent adult abuse, who are
afforded and are often seeking similar protections as victims of
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domestic violence, also receive timely and free copies of their
police reports.
While police reports are free to victims of domestic violence,
local law enforcement can decide what to charge victims of
similar crimes for copies of their police reports. Local
agencies can currently charge up to $30 for reports, with Los
Angeles County charging $24 and San Francisco providing the
reports to these specified victims at no cost.
By increasing the availability of timely and no-cost police
reports to victims of sexual assault, stalking, human
trafficking and elder abuse, this bill seeks to improve the
likelihood that these victims will have the required evidence to
secure needed protective orders against their abusers. They may
also be able to better protect themselves by terminating a lease
early and moving to a safer location or taking time off from
work to get needed services and, if necessary, to be provided
reasonable safety accommodations, all without risk of losing
their jobs.
This bill also restates who is considered a representative of a
victim, for both living and deceased victims, for purposes of
collecting the free police reports and what those
representatives must present to law enforcement in order to
collect the reports. The changes to the law proposed by this
bill do not make any substantive changes but rather summarizes
the provisions in a way that makes it more accessible by
highlighting other important categories of victims.
3. Argument in Support
According to the California Peace Officers' Association (CPOA):
AB 1678 wisely addresses the extremely vulnerable
circumstances that victims of domestic violence, human
trafficking, sexual assault and stalking face by
providing copies of incident reports to those victims.
CPOA is comprised of nearly 3,000 law enforcement
officers across California. Our members are both
supervisorial and front line peace officers, with many
members coming into contact with the above victims on
a daily basis. Many of these victims are often young
adults of even pre-teens, so by setting a youth of 12
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years of age or older within the "victim" definition,
AB 1678 also accounts for those innocent individuals.
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