BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY
Senator Loni Hancock, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: AB 1769 Hearing Date: June 14, 2016
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|Author: |Rodriguez |
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|Version: |March 28, 2016 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant:|ML |
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Subject: 911 Emergency System: Nuisance Communications
HISTORY
Source: Office of the San Bernardino Sheriff - Coroner
Prior Legislation: SB 1211 (Padilla) - Ch. 926, Stats. 2014
SB 333 (Lieu) - Ch. 284, Stats. 2013
AB 538 (Arambula) - 2009-2010 Legislative
Session, Vetoed
AB 2741 (Cannella) - Ch. 262, Stats. 1994
Support: Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs;
California Association of Code Enforcement
Officers; California College and University
Police Chiefs Association; California Fire Chiefs
Association; California Narcotic Officers
Association; California Peace Officers'
Association; California Police Chiefs
Association; California State Sheriffs'
Association; City of Ontario; Fire Districts
Association of California; Los Angeles Police
Protective League; Los Angeles Country
Professional Peace Officers Association; Office
of the Los Angeles Sheriff; Professional Peace
Officers Association; Riverside Sheriffs
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Association; San Diego County Sheriff's
Department
Opposition:None known
Assembly Floor Vote: 79 - 0
PURPOSE
The purpose of this bill is to expand existing law, which
makes a "nuisance call" to the 911 system a misdemeanor,
subject to specific fines, by making the same prohibitions
and penalties applicable to other electronic communication
devices.
Existing law prohibits the use of a telephone for the
purpose of annoying or harassing an individual through the
911 line. (Pen. Code, § 653x(a).)
Existing law states that the intent to annoy or harass is
established by proof of repeated calls that are
unreasonable under the circumstances. (Pen. Code, §
653x(b).)
Existing law states that anyone guilty of using the 911
line to annoy or harass is responsible for all reasonable
costs incurred by the unnecessary emergency response. (Pen.
Code, § 653x(c).)
Existing law states that anyone who knowingly uses the 911
telephone system for any reason other than because of an
emergency is guilty of an infraction, punishable by a
warning for a first offense, and fines for subsequent
offenses. (Pen. Code, § 653y)
This bill prohibits the use of electronic communications
for the purpose of annoying or harassing an individual
through the 911 system.
This bill states that the intent to annoy or harass is
established by proof of repeated communications that are
unreasonable under the circumstances.
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This bill states that anyone who knowingly contacts the 911
system via electronic communication for any reason other
than an emergency is guilty of an infraction.
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 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
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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:
Under current law, any person who telephones the 911
emergency system with the intent to annoy or harass
another person is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a
fine of not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000), by
imprisonment in a county jail for not more than six
months, or by both the fine and imprisonment. The intent
to annoy or harass can be established by proof of
repeated calls over a period of time that are
unreasonable under the circumstances. Upon conviction of
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a violation of this section, a person also shall be
liable for all reasonable costs incurred by any
unnecessary emergency response.
Calling 911 from a phone in California connects you with
the emergency telephone response system. A "legacy
system," it was first established in California in the
early 1970s to summon aid for medical, law enforcement,
and fire department emergencies. Initially designed and
developed for use with landlines, the system has been to
the use of cell phones.
The next phase, Next Generation 9-1-1 or NextGen911 is
now being implemented in California. This system is
aimed at updating the 9-1-1 service infrastructure to
improve public emergency communications services in a
growingly wireless mobile society. In addition to calling
9-1-1 from a phone, it will enable the public to transmit
text, images, video and data to a 9-1-1 center.
NextGen911 also envisions additional types of emergency
communications and data transfer and is intended to
replace the current system over time.
San Bernardino County is one of the first places in
California to implement the NextGen 911 system. As of
November 5, 2015, twenty-one agencies in the Inland
Empire went live with Text to 9-1-1 service and now
answer texts and other types of media requests for
emergency aid. Since the beginning of that start up
these agencies are already receiving nuisance text
messages. Existing law will not cover these messages.
2. Background; Effect of Legislation
The Warren 911 Emergency Assistance Act established the
original 911 line in California as part of a national push
to make 911 the primary contact number for emergencies
nationwide. The Local Emergency Telephone Systems Article
required localities to develop their own system or join a
regional system for police, fire and medical emergency
dispatch using the 911 phone number rather than the
thousands of separate emergency numbers for each local
department which previously existed. The regional
dispatchers who connect 911 callers to the appropriate
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emergency response entity are called Public Safety
Answering Points (PSAPs). Currently, there are 452 PSAPs
statewide receiving tens of millions of calls each year,
with approximately half of these coming from cell phones.
The volume of calls and the difficulty in locating cell
phone callers, among other issues, precipitated the need
for an upgrade to the 911 system.
The Office of Emergency Services (OES) is responsible for
planning, implementing and upgrading the 911 system
statewide. Through the California 911 Emergency
Communications Branch of the Logistics Operation
Directorate, OES has begun the process of upgrading the 911
system as required under the Government Code. The IP based
network of NextGen911 (NG911) will allow for capabilities
such as location based routing, policy based routing and
dynamic call routing between PSAPs. Additionally,
applications like text, video and photos along with
continual advancements in communications technology create
the desire for a more advanced system to access emergency
care. Currently, there are five NG911 pilot programs in
the state. As these expand, the volume of text and other
electronic communications to the 911system will increase.
The Penal Code provisions amended by this bill deter
frivolous or harassing calls which can clog the 911 system.
The National Emergency Number Association 911 dispatchers'
goal of answering 90% of calls in ten seconds or less were
not met in many California counties due to high volume of
calls. Frivolous calls, non-emergency calls or prank calls
that include 'swatting' and other harassment consume
dispatchers' time and prevent them from helping individuals
in actual emergencies. The Penal Code attempts to deter
frivolous, harassing or otherwise inappropriate non -
emergency calls by imposing a schedule of warnings and
fines in the case of frivolous and non-emergency calls, or
fines and jail time for use of the 911 system to annoy or
harass dispatchers. However, both of these Code Sections
prohibit only telephone calls and not the other electronic
communications methods enabled by NG911 systems. This bill
would prohibit those electronic communications.
-- END -
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