BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2632|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2632
Author: Olsen (R), et al.
Amended: 4/18/16 in Assembly
Vote: 21
SENATE BUS., PROF. & ECON. DEV. COMMITTEE: 8-0, 6/6/16
AYES: Hill, Bates, Block, Gaines, Galgiani, Hernandez,
Mendoza, Wieckowski
NO VOTE RECORDED: Jackson
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 78-0, 5/12/16 (Consent) - See last page for
vote
SUBJECT: Private investigators: experience for licensure
SOURCE: The California Association of Licensed Investigators
DIGEST: This bill specifies that work as an investigative
reporter whose experience is comprised of primary investigations
is included as required experience for qualification for the
Private Investigators licensure examination.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Establishes the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services
(Bureau) within the Department of Consumer Affairs. (Business
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Page 2
and Professions Code (BPC) § 6980.1 )
2)Provides for the licensure and regulation of Private
Investigators (PIs) under the Private Investigator Act under
the Bureau. (BPC §§ 7512 - 7514)
3)Provides that experience for purposes of taking the
examination for licensure as a private investigator shall be
limited to those activities actually performed in connection
with investigations, as defined in BPC § 7521, and only if
those activities are performed by persons who are employed or
managed in the following capacities: (BPC § 7541.1)
a) Sworn law enforcement officers possessing powers of
arrest and employed by agencies in the federal, state, or
local government.
b) Military police of the armed forces of the United States
or the National Guard.
c) An insurance adjuster or their employees subject to the
Insurance Adjuster Act. (Insurance Code § 14000 - 14099).
d) Persons employed by a private investigator who are duly
licensed in accordance with this chapter, or managed by a
qualified manager in accordance with BPC § 7536.
e) Persons employed by repossessors duly licensed in
accordance with the Collateral Recovery Act (BPC §§ 7500 -
7511), only to the extent that those persons are routinely
and regularly engaged in the location of debtors or the
location of personal property utilizing methods commonly
known as "skip tracing." For purposes of this section,
only that experience acquired in that skip tracing shall be
credited toward qualification to take the examination.
f) Persons duly trained and certified as an arson
investigator and employed by a public agency engaged in
fire suppression.
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g) Persons trained as investigators and employed by a
public defender to conduct investigations.
This bill:
1)Authorizes persons trained as investigative reporters and
employed by a media source, as specified, to count hours spent
in investigative journalism to apply towards the 6,000-hour
requirement to sit for the PI exam.
2)Defines "primary investigation" as original and in-depth
research and analysis involving multiple sources, including,
but not limited to, public records, databases, archives,
published and unpublished documents, witnesses, informers,
whistleblowers, public officials, and experts, to produce
investigative projects.
3)Makes other various technical changes.
Background
Qualifications for PI Exam. Existing law provides that
applicants for the PI licensing exam must complete a minimum of
three years of investigation work (2,000 hours per year) in
specified investigatory work before being eligible to take the
licensing exam. According to the bill's sponsor, several of its
members have been permitted to count their experience in
investigative journalism towards their license requirements.
However, the sponsor also states that this is no longer the
case, and several applications that have included investigative
journalism have been denied. Therefore, since investigative
journalism is not included in the authorized professions, this
bill will add investigative journalism and specify the types of
work and employment.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: No
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SUPPORT: (Verified6/21/16)
The California Association of Licensed Investigators (source)
OPPOSITION: (Verified6/21/16)
None received
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: The California Association of Licensed
Investigators (sponsor) argues that, "BSIS [Bureau of Security
and Investigative Services] has already begun denying
applications to those who have worked as investigative
journalists, but have not yet obtained a private investigator
license. Current law limits the activities that an individual
may use to satisfy the time requirement to just seven. Work
performed as an investigative reporter is not among them. To
provide clarity, this bill will add an additional provision that
permits prospective licensees to count hours spent in
investigative journalism to apply towards the 6,000 hour
requirement. This new provision will ensure that the important
work performed by investigative journalists will not be
overlooked when these individuals look to apply for full
licensure as private investigators."
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 78-0, 5/12/16
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Arambula, Atkins, Baker,
Bigelow, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Calderon,
Campos, Chang, Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper,
Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, 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,
Patterson, Quirk, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago,
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Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber,
Wilk, Williams, Wood, Rendon
NO VOTE RECORDED: Burke, Jones-Sawyer
Prepared by:Mark Mendoza / B., P. & E.D. / (916) 651-4104
6/22/16 15:15:05
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