BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2626
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Date of Hearing: May 18, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Lorena Gonzalez, Chair
AB
2626 (Jones-Sawyer) - As Amended April 25, 2016
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|Policy |Public Safety |Vote:|7 - 0 |
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: YesReimbursable:
No
SUMMARY:
This bill requires the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and
Training (POST), beginning June 2017, to develop and disseminate
training on principled policy, specifically procedural justice,
as defined, and implicit bias for all peace officers; and to
incorporate procedural justice and implicit bias training into
POST's basic training by no later than June 1, 2018.
FISCAL EFFECT:
AB 2626
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1)One time cost to POST in the $500,000 range (GF), to conduct
eight train-the-trainer sessions, pay instructors, and
reimburse 200 students for their expenses.
2)No reimbursable state mandated costs to local agencies.
COMMENTS:
1)Background. POST was created by the legislature in 1959 to
set minimum selection and training standards for California
law enforcement. According to the POST website, the Regular
Basic Course Training includes 42 separate topics, ranging
from juvenile law and procedure to search and seizure. These
topics are taught during a minimum of 664 hours of training.
Current law requires that the course of basic training for law
enforcement officers include adequate instruction on racial
and cultural diversity in order to foster mutual respect and
cooperation between law enforcement and members of all racial
and cultural groups.
2)Purpose. According to the author, "Increasing trust between
law enforcement and the communities they serve is a crucial
component to maintaining public safety. Studies show that
training peace officers on procedural justice and implicit
bias has a direct and measurably positive effect on
police-community relations."
3)Procedural justice. "Procedural justice" is defined as "an
approach to policing based on giving people the opportunity to
tell their side of the story, remaining neutral in
decision-making and behavior, treating people with respect,
and explaining actions in a way that communicates caring for
people's concerns so as to demonstrate trustworthiness."
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4)Implicit Bias: Implicit bias is an unconscious psychological
bias against individuals in certain racial, gender or other
legally protected groups. If an individual has an implicit
bias against any group, this does not mean that they
necessarily have an explicit prejudice against that group. In
fact, there is no correlation between implicit bias and
explicit prejudice. In fact, research has shown that even
members of minority groups often have an implicit bias against
the minority group of which they are a member. This
demonstrates the pervasiveness of implicit bias.
5)Support/Opposition. AB 2626 is supported by the Attorney
General Kamala Harris who believes "AB 2626 will make a
valuable contribution toward cultivating relationships of
trust and respect between law enforcement and the communities
they serve." There is no opposition.
6)Prior Legislation:
a) AB 1118 (Bonta), of the 2015-16 Legislative Session,
would have established the Procedural Justice Task Force,
which would be administered by POST. The task force would
provide for grant funding, to be awarded to local law
enforcement departments for the purpose of implementing and
enhancing procedural justice training and would have
required the task force to manage these programs, monitor
their implementation, and serve in an advisory capacity to
sites leading implementation. AB 1118 was held in this
committee's Suspense file..
b) AB 953 (Weber), Chapter 466, Statutes of 2015, requires,
beginning July 1, 2016, the Attorney General to establish
the Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board (RIPA) to
eliminate racial and identity profiling and improve
diversity and racial and identity sensitivity in law
enforcement.
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Analysis Prepared by:Pedro Reyes / APPR. / (916)
319-2081