BILL ANALYSIS Ó ----------------------------------------------------------------- |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2632| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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 AB 2632 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. AB 2632 Page 3 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 AB 2632 Page 4 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, AB 2632 Page 5 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 **** END ****