BILL ANALYSIS
AB 558
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CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 558 (Portantino)
As Amended August 9, 2010
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |72-0 |(January 27, |SENATE: |33-0 |(August 11, |
| | |2010) | | |2010) |
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Original Committee Reference: L. GOV.
SUMMARY : Requires that beginning July 1, 2012, and annually
thereafter until July 1, 2016, each local law enforcement agency
responsible for taking or collecting rape kit evidence shall annually
report to the Department of Justice (DOJ) various statistical
information pertaining to the testing and submission for DNA analysis
of rape kits, as specified.
The Senate amendments :
1)Clarify that the provisions of the bill apply only to rape kits
collected on or after January 1, 2011 and makes other technical,
non-substantive changes related to the July 1 annual reporting date,
as specified.
2)Eliminate the requirement that local law enforcement report
statistical information, as specified, gathered from rape kits taken
in cases where the identity of the assailant is contested and the
total number of rape kits destroyed during the preceding calendar
year.
3)Specify that local law enforcement must collect information about
the total number of rape kits submitted for DNA testing rather than
the total number of rape kits local law enforcement requested be
tested.
AS PASSED BY THE ASEMBLY, this bill required that, by July 1 of each
year, each local law enforcement agency responsible for taking or
processing rape kit evidence shall report various information related
to the collection and testing of rape kits.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations Committee,
pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8, negligible state costs.
COMMENTS : According to the author, "Last year it was discovered that
the City and County of Los Angeles had over 10,000 unopened rape kits
AB 558
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in their evidence lockers. Of these, the City of Los Angeles alone had
403 unopened rape kits that were the result of stranger rapes. It is
naive to believe that the Los Angeles area is the only community in
the state that is not testing its rape kits. AB 558 will require all
law enforcement agencies to report to the California Department of
Justice their statistics on the numbers of rape kits that they collect
and test and the numbers of these kits that are stranger rapes or
where the identity of the assailant is contested. Because the first
report is not due until July 1, 2012, local law enforcement will be
able to tabulate rape kits as they are collected, keeping related
costs at a minimum. Legislative fiscal committees have estimated that
these costs will not meet levels requiring reimbursement as a local
mandate.
"Most local governments currently use the Department of Justice
criminal lab to test their rape kits. Although not ultimately
adopted, the Legislative Analysts Office and several of the recent
budget bills proposed requiring the DOJ crime lab to start billing
local government for services such as testing rape kits. Such a
practice would create a tremendous financial disincentive to test rape
kits. Enacting AB 558 will allow us to track the testing of rape kits
by our local law enforcement agencies. While not all rape kits need
to tested, the report to the DOJ will identify kits that are collected
as the result of stranger rapes and identity contested rapes. These
are the kits that should almost always be tested. It is my intent
that the mandated report to DOJ only includes the kits that are
collected after the effective date of the legislation. By reporting
kits that are collected after enactment of AB 558, the cost to local
law enforcement agencies will be minimal. Law enforcement can
categorize kits as they are collected as part of their normal evidence
collection procedures. It is not my intent that local law enforcement
be required to go to their evidence lockers and count kits collected
prior to January 1, 2011."
Please see the policy committee for a full discussion of this bill.
Analysis Prepared by : Kimberly Horiuchi / PUB. S. / (916) 319-3744
FN: 0005799