BILL ANALYSIS Ó ----------------------------------------------------------------- |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1678| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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: AB 1678 Page 2 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 AB 1678 Page 3 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 AB 1678 Page 4 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: AB 1678 Page 5 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 AB 1678 Page 6 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 **** END ****