BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2611|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2611
Author: Low (D)
Amended: 6/22/16 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: 6-1, 6/21/16
AYES: Jackson, Anderson, Hertzberg, Leno, Monning, Wieckowski
NOES: Moorlach
SENATE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE: 6-1, 6/28/16
AYES: Hancock, Anderson, Glazer, Liu, Monning, Stone
NOES: Leno
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 76-0, 5/23/16 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: The California Public Records Act: visual or audio
recording of peace officers death: conditional
exemption from disclosure
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill prohibits a public agency from disclosing a
visual or audio recording of the death of a peace officer killed
in the line of duty, unless the disclosure is authorized by the
peace officer's immediate family, in which case, this bill
requires the public agency to disclose the visual or audio
recording.
AB 2611
Page 2
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Declares, pursuant to the California Constitution, the
people's right to transparency in government. ("The people
have the right of access to information concerning the conduct
of the people's business, and therefore, the meetings of
public bodies and the writings of public officials and
agencies shall be open to public scrutiny....") (Cal. Const.,
art. I, Sec. 3.)
2)Governs, pursuant to the California Public Records Act (CPRA),
the public disclosure of information collected and maintained
by public agencies. (Gov. Code Sec. 6250 et seq.) Generally,
all public records are accessible to the public upon request,
unless the record requested is exempt from public disclosure.
(Gov. Code Sec. 6253.) There are 30 general categories of
documents or information that are exempt from disclosure,
essentially due to the character of the information, and
unless it is shown that the public's interest in disclosure
outweighs the public's interest in non-disclosure of the
information, the exempt information may be withheld by the
public agency with custody of the information. (Gov. Code
Sec. 6254 et seq.)
3)Requires that any reasonably segregable portion of a record
shall be available for inspection by any person requesting the
record after deletion of the proportions that are exempted by
law. (Gov. Code Sec. 6253(a).)
4)Allows, for records not subject to an exemption, the
withholding of records if the agency demonstrates that on the
facts of the particular case the public interest served by not
disclosing the record clearly outweighs the public interest
served by disclosure of the record. (Gov. Code Sec. 6255.)
5)Defines "public record" as any writing containing information
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Page 3
relating to the conduct of the public's business prepared,
owned, used, or retained by any state or local agency
regardless of physical form or characteristics. (Gov. Code
Sec. 6252(e).)
6)Defines "writing" to include any handwriting, typewriting,
printing, photography, transmitting by electronic mail or
facsimile, and every other means of recording upon any
tangible thing any form of communication or other
representation, regardless of the manner in which the record
has been stored. (Gov. Code Sec. 6252(g).)
This bill:
1)Prohibits a public agency from disclosing a visual or audio
recording of the death of a peace officer killed in the line
of duty, unless the disclosure is authorized by the peace
officer's immediate family. If a peace officer's immediate
family authorizes the disclosure of a visual or audio
recording of the death of the peace officer killed in the line
of duty, the public agency is required to disclose the visual
or audio recording.
2)Makes the following legislative finding and declaration to
demonstrate the interest protected by this limitation and the
need for protecting that interest: "Prohibiting the disclosure
of a visual or audio recording of the death of a peace officer
killed in the line of duty , without the consent of the peace
officer's immediate family, ensures the privacy of persons who
serve in law enforcement and their immediate families,
protects those families from additional emotional trauma from
public displays of those images, and further protects the
public from the graphic sounds and morbid images that would be
contained in a visual or audio recording of the death of a
peace officer in the line of duty. By providing for a
limited, conditional disclosure of these recordings, when
other public records relating to the death may be available
for public inspection, this act properly balances the public's
right to access public records with proper privacy interests."
AB 2611
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Background
The CPRA governs the disclosure of information collected and
maintained by public agencies. Generally, all public records
are accessible to the public upon request, unless the record
requested is exempt from disclosure. (Gov. Code Sec. 6254 et
seq.) There are 30 general categories of documents or
information that are exempt from disclosure, essentially due to
the character of the information, and unless it is shown that
the public's interest in disclosure outweighs the public's
interest in non-disclosure of the information, the exempt
information may be withheld by the public agency with custody of
the information.
On August 9, 2014, Michael Brown was shot by Officer Darren
Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, during the course of an arrest for
an alleged robbery. While Wilson was not indicted for his
actions, the incident demonstrated the tremendous difficulties
in determining crucial facts related to use of force by police
against members of the public.
In the wake of Ferguson and other incidences involving
allegations of police misconduct, communities across the country
are outfitting police forces with body cameras. In fact, body
cameras have emerged as a rare point of agreement between reform
advocates and law enforcement officials. Many officers report
that the equipment changes citizen behavior and helps deescalate
confrontations between civilians and police. They also claim
that body cameras improve evidence collection, and help them
more accurately recollect events and fill out reports. (Wing,
Study Shows Less Violence, Fewer Complaints When Cops Wear Body
Cameras (2015) Huffington Post
Page 5
victims, and discussions with confidential informants, may be
recorded and potentially preserved for public inspection. Thus,
in order for body cameras to both increase police accountability
and protect privacy rights, the Legislature must balance what
footage should be available for public review versus the footage
that should be kept confidential.
This bill prohibits a public agency from disclosing a visual or
audio recording of the death of a peace officer killed in the
line of duty, unless the disclosure is authorized by the peace
officer's immediate family.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: Yes
SUPPORT: (Verified8/1/16)
Association of Deputy District Attorneys
Association of Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs
Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs
California Peace Officers Association
California Statewide Law Enforcement Association
Fraternal Order of Police
Long Beach Police Officers Association
Los Angeles County Deputy Probation Officers Union, AFSCME,
Local 685
Los Angeles County Professional Peace Officers Association
Los Angeles Police Protective League
Peace Officers Research Association of California
Riverside Sheriffs' Association
Sacramento County Deputy Sheriffs Association
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/1/16)
American Civil Liberties Union of California
California Newspaper Publishers Association
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Legal Services for Prisoners with Children
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ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: The Peace Officers Research
Association of California writes in support:
[T]he CPRA does not address the issue of the release of any
video depicting the great bodily injury or death of a peace
officer while acting in the line of duty. A peace officer
receiving serious injuring or giving the ultimate sacrifice
for the citizens of this state deserves to have any related
video protected by the Act. The surviving families of these
officers should not have to worry that the video depicting
their loved one's death will be open to the public to be
viewed over and over again.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION: The American Civil Liberties Union of
California writes in opposition:
With respect to audio or visual recordings that depict the
death of a peace officer, we appreciate that these may be
sensitive materials that family members may prefer not to be
released. But we see no justification for being more
protective of peace officer deaths than those of any other
public official, or of the general public. Indeed, there are
good reasons for being more open about the activities of peace
officers because they are public officials who must be subject
to greater scrutiny by virtue of the enormous power entrusted
to them, including the possibility that an officer's death may
occur in the context of alleged misconduct, or as the victim
of a crime.
Further, the Electronic Frontier Foundation writes, "a recording
of a violent confrontation between police officers and members
of the public might be highly newsworthy and critical to an
informed public understanding of the event, even though the
recording contains images of an officer's death[.] ? For
example, if a traffic stop tragically ends with an officer
gruesomely slaying a civilian and accidentally slaying another
officer, then the CPRA should allow prompt public access to any
squad car and body camera recordings of the episode. CPRA
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should not allow a veto over disclosure by the decedent's
family[.]"
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 76-0, 5/23/16
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Atkins, Baker, Bigelow,
Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos,
Chang, Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh,
Dahle, Daly, Dodd, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina
Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez,
Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, Holden,
Irwin, Jones, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low,
Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin,
Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen, Quirk, Ridley-Thomas,
Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago, Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond,
Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams, Wood, Rendon
NO VOTE RECORDED: Arambula, Eggman, Jones-Sawyer, Patterson
Prepared by:Nichole Rapier / JUD. / (916) 651-4113
8/3/16 19:11:01
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