BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



          SENATE COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND HOUSING
                              Senator Jim Beall, Chair
                                2015 - 2016  Regular 

          Bill No:          SB 626            Hearing Date:     4/14/2015
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          |Author:   |McGuire                                               |
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          |Version:  |2/27/2015                                             |
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          |Urgency:  |No                     |Fiscal:      |No              |
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          |Consultant|Eric Thronson                                         |
          |:         |                                                      |
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          SUBJECT:  Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit District:  chief of  
          police


            DIGEST:  This bill authorizes the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit  
          (SMART) District to establish the position of chief of police.

          ANALYSIS:
          
          Existing law establishes the SMART District for the purpose of  
          providing a unified, comprehensive institutional structure for  
          the ownership and governance of a passenger rail system within  
          the counties of Sonoma and Marin.  SMART will provide rail  
          service along 70 miles of the historic Northwestern Pacific  
          Railroad alignment, serving 14 stations from Cloverdale in  
          Sonoma County to the San Francisco-bound ferry terminal in  
          Larkspur, Marin County.  SMART began construction on the system  
          in May 2012, and plans to begin revenue service in 2016.

          This bill:
          
          1.Authorizes the SMART board to establish the position of chief  
            of police.

          2.Specifies that the police chief will be a duly sworn police  
            officer and must comply with the standards for recruitment and  
            training of peace officers established in existing law.

          3.Specifies that, should the SMART board determine that more  
            than one officer is needed, it may contract for those services  







          SB 626 (McGuire)                                   Page 2 of ?
          
          
            with Marin and/or Sonoma counties.  

          4.Requires the SMART board to equip every on-duty contract  
            officer with an on-body camera or similar video body-camera  
            technology.

          

          COMMENTS:

          1.Purpose.  The author contends that, without a sworn police  
            officer on staff, law enforcement agencies will not share  
            sensitive information with SMART.  Without this information,  
            SMART becomes vulnerable and unable to respond to sensitive  
            information pertaining to service disruption, acts of  
            vandalism, and violence.  The author suggests that this bill  
            solves this problem; with a sworn police chief, SMART will be  
            able to access sensitive information from other law  
            enforcement agencies.

          2.Transit operator police forces.  Very few transit operators in  
            California have legislative authority to establish their own  
            police forces.  In fact, of the roughly 250 entities statewide  
            that are eligible to receive state transit funding, only four  
            transit operators are statutorily allowed to maintain their  
            own police department.  All other transit service providers  
            contract with local law enforcement or private entities to  
            provide their security needs.

            Some operators cite the increased costs of in-house peace  
            officers, including the higher benefit and retirement costs of  
            these types of employees, as the reason they contract for  
            security services.  Others point to the high risk involved  
            with managing a police force authorized to use deadly force,  
            suggesting that recent incidents some transit operators have  
            experienced demonstrate the problems that can arise with an  
            in-house police force.  Finally, some suggest that an  
            organization dedicated to providing transit service is  
            ill-equipped to, at the same time, manage a police force and  
            would therefore appreciate the benefits of contracting out for  
            such services.

            This bill does not propose to authorize the SMART board to  
            establish a police force, but instead grants authority to only  
            hire one sworn police officer and to contract for any  








          SB 626 (McGuire)                                   Page 3 of ?
          
          
            additional law enforcement services deemed necessary.  While a  
            sworn police chief would be eligible under existing law to  
            review sensitive law enforcement information, as the author  
            suggests, it is unclear whether this would assure timely  
            access to this information, nor whether the increased cost of  
            a sworn officer on staff is worth this access.

          3.Amendments.  The author has agreed to the following  
            amendments.  While the author intends to accept these  
            amendments to the bill in this committee, due to the short  
            time before the bill's next hearing in the Senate Public  
            Safety Committee, the amendments will be taken following that  
            hearing should it pass both committees.

                 This bill allows the SMART board to contract with either  
               the Marin County Sheriff's office or the Sonoma County  
               Sheriff's office for security services.  By limiting the  
               number of law enforcement agencies with whom SMART might  
               contract for these services, this bill might reduce the  
               competition for this work and therefore increase the costs.  
                In order to increase the opportunity for competition and  
               potentially keep costs low, the committee could amend the  
               bill to specify that SMART may contract with any law  
               enforcement agencies located in the counties of Marin and  
               Sonoma.

                 This bill requires the SMART board to equip every  
               contract officer with an "on-body camera."  It seems that  
               the SMART board and its contracted security service  
               providers should determine whether or not to equip its  
               forces, not the Legislature.  The committee could amend the  
               bill to eliminate this requirement because it might  
               unnecessarily increase costs for the SMART board and  
               reduces the local government's ability to make the best  
               determination for its service jurisdiction.

                 Legislative Counsel has proposed some cleanup language  
               relating to the references in this bill as to what  
               qualifies as a duly sworn police officer.  Essentially,  
               Legislative Counsel recommends removing the various  
               references because they are superfluous and unnecessary.   
               The committee could amend the bill to eliminate these  
               unnecessary references.

          1.Double referral.  The Rules Committee has referred this bill  








          SB 626 (McGuire)                                   Page 4 of ?
          
          
            to both this committee and the Public Safety Committee.   
            Therefore, if the bill passes this committee, it will be  
            referred to the Committee on Public Safety.

          PRIOR LEGISLATION:
          
          AB 2224 (Nation, 2002) established the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail  
          Transit (SMART) District.

          FISCAL EFFECT:                 Appropriation:  No    Fiscal  
          Com.:             No           Local:          No


            POSITIONS:  (Communicated to the committee before noon on  
          Wednesday,
                          April 8, 2015.)

          SUPPORT:  

          Sonoma-Marin Rail Transit District (sponsor)
          Central Marin Police Authority
          Marin County Sheriff's Office
          Novato Police Department
          San Rafael Police Department
          Sonoma County Sheriff's Office

          OPPOSITION:

          None received.

                                      -- END --