BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 626|
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 626
Author: McGuire (D), et al.
Amended: 8/20/15
Vote: 21
SENATE TRANS. & HOUSING COMMITTEE: 11-0, 4/14/15
AYES: Beall, Cannella, Allen, Bates, Gaines, Galgiani, Leyva,
McGuire, Mendoza, Roth, Wieckowski
SENATE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE: 7-0, 5/12/15
AYES: Hancock, Anderson, Leno, Liu, McGuire, Monning, Stone
SENATE FLOOR: 36-0, 5/18/15
AYES: Allen, Anderson, Bates, Beall, Block, Cannella, De León,
Fuller, Gaines, Galgiani, Hancock, Hernandez, Hertzberg, Hill,
Hueso, Huff, Jackson, Lara, Leno, Leyva, Liu, McGuire,
Mendoza, Mitchell, Monning, Moorlach, Morrell, Nguyen,
Nielsen, Pan, Roth, Runner, Stone, Vidak, Wieckowski, Wolk
NO VOTE RECORDED: Berryhill, Hall, Pavley
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 78-0, 8/27/15 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit District: police
force
SOURCE: Sonoma-Marin Rail Transit District
DIGEST: This bill authorizes the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit
(SMART) District to establish the position of chief of police.
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Assembly Amendments clarify that SMART shall contract with law
enforcement agencies located within Marin or Sonoma Counties for
services requiring duly sworn peace officers, but not
necessarily for services requiring other types of officers.
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 duly sworn peace officer is needed, it shall contract
for those services with law enforcement agencies within Marin
and/or Sonoma counties.
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
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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
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.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:NoLocal: No
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SUPPORT: (Verified8/27/15)
Sonoma-Marin Rail Transit District (source)
Central Marin Police Authority
Marin County Sheriff's Office
Novato Police Department
San Rafael Police Department
Sonoma County Sheriff's Office
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/27/15)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 78-0, 8/27/15
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom,
Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chang,
Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle,
Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia,
Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray,
Grove, Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones,
Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low,
Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin,
Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Perea,
Quirk, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago,
Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber,
Wilk, Williams, Atkins
NO VOTE RECORDED: Frazier, Wood
Prepared by:Eric Thronson / T. & H. / (916) 651-4121
8/28/15 14:28:08
**** END ****
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