BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1678|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 1678
Author: Santiago (D)
Amended: 8/15/16 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE: 7-0, 5/10/16
AYES: Hancock, Anderson, Glazer, Leno, Liu, Monning, Stone
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 7-0, 8/11/16
AYES: Lara, Bates, Beall, Hill, McGuire, Mendoza, Nielsen
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 76-0, 4/14/16 (Consent) - See last page for
vote
SUBJECT: Provision of incident reports to victims
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill requires 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, without charge and within specified
timeframes, upon request to victims or the victims'
representative.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
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1)Provides that a court may issue a temporary restraining order
for domestic violence prevention, as specified. (Family Code
§§ 6220, 6300)
2)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.)
3)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).)
4)Requires law enforcement to complete a domestic violence
incident report for each domestic violence-related call, as
specified. (Penal Code § 13730.)
5)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.)
6)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.)
7)Protects a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, or
stalking, as defined, from employment discrimination and
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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, 230.1.)
This bill:
1)Requires state and local law enforcement agencies 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 upon a request made within two years from the date of
completion of the incident report by the victim or their
representative.
2)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.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: Yes
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:
Incident reports: Potentially significant, likely
non-reimbursable local costs (Local Funds) for local law
enforcement agencies to provide incident reports for the
specified crimes within the specified time periods. With
regard to the preparation of incident reports for the
specified crimes, the Commission on State Mandates previously
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disagreed that an "implied mandate" was created by the statute
to prepare incident reports via the requirement to provide
copies of such reports within specified timeframes. Apart from
preparation, the provision of face sheets and incident reports
for these crimes would not appear to create a reimbursable
state mandate, as disclosure of this information to a victim
or his/her authorized representative is currently required
under the California Public Records Act.
Lost fee revenues: Potential reduction in fee revenues (Local
Funds) to counties that currently charge fees for face
sheet/incident report requests. The Department of Justice has
indicated over 16,000 arrests for the specified offenses in
each of the past three years. The number of future requests
for face sheets/incident reports is unknown. As a result, the
potential lost revenue to local law enforcement agencies
cannot be estimated with certainty and would be dependent on
the volume of requests submitted to each local agency and the
associated fee charged by that agency, if any.
State agencies: Likely minor impact to the California Highway
Patrol and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to
the extent the provisions of this bill relate to report
requests made pursuant to acquiring a restraining order.
SUPPORT: (Verified8/11/16)
California District Attorneys Association
California Partnership to End Domestic Violence
California Peace Officers Association
California State Sheriffs' Association
Crime Victims United of California
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/11/16)
California Public Defenders Association
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: According to the California
Partnership to End Domestic Violence:
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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
thirty dollar fee. Currently, local and state agencies are
able to decide how much, if at all, they will charge for a
police report. 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.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION: The California Public Defenders
Association states, in part:
?providing alleged victims with police reports carries
ramifications to the due process rights of individuals who
are ultimately charged with the crimes based on the
allegations contained in the reports?If alleged victims are
given copies of reports, there is not preventing them from
further disseminating those reports to the media or to the
community in which the defendant and his or her family
reside, resulting in the very real possibility of harassment
while the charges are pending. The issue of pre-trial
harassment is particularly acute in cases involving sexual
assault, which the bill seeks to include?
In addition, turning reports over to an alleged victim, who
is by definition a potential trial witness, may unduly impact
their trial testimony. For example, the police report may
contain statements from other witnesses that could color how
the alleged victim recalls the incident when testifying.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 76-0, 4/14/16
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Arambula, Atkins, Baker,
Bigelow, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke,
Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley,
Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Beth
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Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto,
Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper,
Roger Hernández, Holden, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey,
Linder, Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty,
Medina, Mullin, Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Quirk,
Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago, Steinorth, Mark
Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams,
Wood, Rendon
NO VOTE RECORDED: Irwin, Levine, Melendez, Nazarian
Prepared by:Molly Lao / PUB. S. /
8/15/16 20:10:06
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