BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 1221|
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 1221
Author: Hertzberg (D), et al.
Amended: 6/8/16
Vote: 21
SENATE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE: 6-0, 4/12/16
AYES: Hancock, Glazer, Leno, Liu, Monning, Stone
NO VOTE RECORDED: Anderson
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: Senate Rule 28.8
SENATE FLOOR: 37-0, 4/28/16 (Consent)
AYES: Allen, Anderson, Bates, Beall, Berryhill, Block,
Cannella, De León, Fuller, Gaines, Galgiani, Glazer, Hall,
Hancock, Hertzberg, Hill, Hueso, Huff, Jackson, Lara, Leno,
Leyva, Liu, McGuire, Mendoza, Mitchell, Monning, Moorlach,
Morrell, Nguyen, Nielsen, Pan, Pavley, Roth, Stone,
Wieckowski, Wolk
NO VOTE RECORDED: Hernandez, Runner, Vidak
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 79-0, 8/22/16 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Firefighters: interaction with persons with mental
disabilities
SOURCE: Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department
DIGEST: This bill directs the Commission on Peace Officers
Standards and Training (POST) to make the existing continuing
education classroom training course related to law enforcement
interaction with persons with mental disabilities available to
the State Fire Marshal, who may revise the course as appropriate
for firefighters.
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Assembly Amendments delete the phrase "mentally disabled
persons" and insert "persons with mental disabilities" where
applicable.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Establishes the Commission on Peace Officer Training and
Standards. (Pen. Code, § 13500.)
2)Requires all peace officers to complete an introductory course
of training prescribed by POST, demonstrated by passage of an
appropriate examination developed by POST. (Pen. Code, § 832,
subd. (a).)
3)Empowers POST to develop and implement programs to increase
the effectiveness of law enforcement. (Pen. Code, §13503.)
4)Authorizes POST, for the purpose of raising the level of
competence of local law enforcement officers, to adopt rules
establishing minimum standards related to physical, mental and
moral fitness and training that shall govern the recruitment
of any peace officers in California. (Pen. Code, § 13510,
subd. (a).)
5)States that POST shall include in the basic training course
for law enforcement officers, adequate instruction in the
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handling of persons with developmental disabilities or mental
illness, or both. In addition to providing instruction on the
handling of these persons, the course must also include
information on the cause and nature of developmental
disabilities and mental illness, as well as the community
resources available to serve these persons. (Pen. Code, §
13519.2)
6)Requires POST to establish and keep updated a continuing
education classroom training course relating to law
enforcement interaction with mentally disabled persons.
(Pen.Code, § 13515.25.)
7)Requires the training course to be developed in consultation
with appropriate community, local, and state organizations and
agencies that have expertise in the area of mental illness and
developmental disability, and with appropriate consumer and
family advocate groups. (Pen.Code, § 13515.25.)
8)Directs POST to make the course available to law enforcement
agencies in California. This course must consist of classroom
instruction and utilize interactive training methods to ensure
that the training is as realistic as possible and the course
must include, at a minimum, core instruction in the following:
a) The cause and nature of mental illnesses and
developmental disabilities; (Pen.Code, § 13515.25.)
b) How to identify indicators of mental disability and how
to respond appropriately in a variety of common situations;
(Pen.Code, § 13515.25.)
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c) Conflict resolution and de-escalation techniques for
potentially dangerous situations involving mentally
disabled persons; (Pen.Code, § 13515.25.)
d) Appropriate language usage when interacting with
mentally disabled persons; (Pen.Code, § 13515.25.)
e) Alternatives to lethal force when interacting with
potentially dangerous mentally disabled persons; (Pen.Code,
§ 13515.25.)
f) Community and state resources available to serve
mentally disabled persons and how these resources can be
best utilized by law enforcement to benefit the mentally
disabled community; and, (Pen.Code, § 13515.25.)
g) The fact that a crime committed in whole or in part
because of an actual or perceived disability of the victim
is a hate crime. (Pen.Code, § 13515.25.)
This bill authorizes POST to make available this educational
training to the State Fire Marshall, who may revise the course
as appropriate to the firefighter training environment. This
bill also makes additional purely technical amendments to this
section.
Background
This legislation would extend POST's current training
program to prepare law enforcement officers for
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interactions with both developmentally and mentally
disabled persons to firefighters. The POST training for law
enforcement website highlights some examples of such
disabilities and its common occurrences that the training
would target: one out of 17 adults suffer from
schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder or major depression, 46%
of the homeless have a mental illness and/or substance
abuse disorder, and one out of 68 children is diagnosed
with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Currently, law enforcement training provides a minimum of
664 training hours in its Regular Basic Course, which is
divided into 42 individual law enforcement topics called
Learning Domains (LD). LD37 focuses on People with
Disabilities and requires a minimum of 15 hours of
instruction, learning activities, a written exam and
resolving a "high stakes" scenario involving a person with
a mental or developmental disability. The training is
designed to:
Introduce the laws that protect people with
disabilities, enhance the recognition of behaviors
that are indicative of disability or mental illness,
provide de-escalation skills, teach
situation-appropriate responses and referrals to the
individual and community, and reduce the stigma
associated with mental illness and disabilities.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: No
SUPPORT: (Verified8/22/16)
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (source)
The Arc of California
Association of Regional Center Agencies
California Fire Chiefs Association
California Public Defenders Association
California State Council on Development Disabilities
California State Sheriffs' Association
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Disability Rights California
Fire Districts Association of California
League of California Cities
National Association of Social Workers - California Chapter
Office of the Sheriff County of Los Angeles
United Cerebral Palsy California Collaboration
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/22/16)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 79-0, 8/22/16
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Arambula, Atkins, Baker,
Bigelow, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke,
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, Jones-Sawyer, Kim,
Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mathis,
Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte,
O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Quirk, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez,
Salas, Santiago, Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting,
Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams, Wood, Rendon
NO VOTE RECORDED: Melendez
Prepared by:Molly Lao / PUB. S. /
8/22/16 21:33:55
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