BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1390
Page A
Date of Hearing: April 22, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Julia Brownley, Chair
AB 1390 (Blumenfield) - As Amended: April 16, 2009
[Note: This bill has been double referred to the Assembly Public
Safety Committee and will be heard as it relates to issues under
its jurisdiction.]
SUBJECT : School security and police departments
SUMMARY : Requires, within 24 hours of an incident involving any
of the acts that result in mandatory expulsion, whether
committed by a pupil or nonpupil, a school security department
or school police department to notify, in writing, the
appropriate county or city law enforcement authorities having
jurisdiction where the incident occurred.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Authorizes the governing board of any school district to
establish a security department under the supervision of a
chief of security or a police department under the supervision
of a chief of police, as designated by, and under the
direction of, the superintendent of the school district.
2)Authorizes the governing board of a school district to
establish a school police reserve officer corps to supplement
a police department.
3)Specifies that individuals employed by a police department,
when appointed and duly sworn, are peace officers and may
carry firearms if authorized by the governing board.
4)Defines "school security officer" as any person primarily
employed or assigned to provide security services as a
watchperson, security guard, or patrolperson on or about
premises owned or operated by a school district to protect
persons or property or to prevent the theft or unlawful taking
of district property of any kind or to report any unlawful
activity to the district and local law enforcement agencies.
5)Specifies the acts committed at school or at a school activity
off school grounds that result in the suspension or expulsion
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Page B
of a pupil.
6)Requires the principal of a school or the principal's designee
to, prior to the suspension or expulsion of any pupil, notify
the appropriate law enforcement authorities of the county or
city in which the school is situated, of any acts of the pupil
that violate specified provisions of the Education and Penal
Codes.
7)Provides that whenever any employee of a school district or of
the office of county superintendent of schools is attacked,
assaulted, or physically threatened by any pupil, it shall be
the duty of the employee, and the duty of the employee's
supervisor, to report the incident to the appropriate local
law enforcement. Provides that failure to make the report
shall be an infraction punishable by a fine of not more than a
$1,000.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : This bill requires a school security department or
school police department to make a written report to the
appropriate law enforcement agency within its jurisdiction
within 24 hours after the occurrence of the following types of
incidences:
1)Possessing, selling, or otherwise furnishing a firearm, except
where the pupil had obtained prior written permission to
possess the firearm from school officials;
2)Brandishing a knife at another person;
3)Unlawfully selling a controlled substance;
4)Committing or attempting to commit a sexual assault; and,
5)Possession of an explosive.
Purpose of the bill . The author states, "Prompt, accurate and
transparent reporting of school-related crimes is a critical
first step toward the development of effective early warning,
prevention and intervention strategies for at-risk youth. This
is particularly important in large urban settings where school
police and city police departments share some concurrent
responsibilities and one or both may be involved in the
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investigation of a school incident depending on the nature of
the crime. To effectively address school crime, districts must
first acknowledge it exists (transparency) and principals and
school police must cross report all serious crime to local law
enforcement at the earliest possible stage to assist in early
intervention strategies."
An article provided by the author titled "School Crime Reporting
and School Crime Underreporting"<1> states the following reasons
why school officials should report crimes:
It is the right thing to do. Schools are not islands of
lawlessness where the criminal law does not apply.
Acknowledging the problems by making a police report
will kick in the criminal justice system, which can and
should work simultaneously with the school's
administrative, disciplinary system.
Accurately reporting incidents is the first step in
developing effective prevention strategies. Documented
data can be used for early identification of trends,
identification of crime patterns, and to provide related
red flags so school and safety officials can intervene
before problems become entrenched.
We are doing a disservice to kids if we teach them that
they can commit crimes at school and there will be no
criminal justice consequences.
Background. Security and Police Departments . Governing boards
are authorized to establish security departments headed by a
Chief of Security and a police department headed by a chief of
police. Security departments are considered supplementary to
city and county law enforcement agencies and are not vested with
general police powers. Individuals employed and compensated as
members of a police department of a school district, when
appointed and duly sworn, are considered peace officers with
arrest powers. There is no data on the number of districts that
have security or police departments. Larger districts are more
likely than smaller districts to have police departments.
School Resource Officers . Those districts that do not have
security or police department partner with their local city or
---------------------------
<1> National School Safety and Security Services.
AB 1390
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county law enforcement agencies through the School Resource
Officer Program (SRO). The SRO program assigns one or more
police officers to work with school districts to create and
maintain a safe environment and provide support and training to
school and district officials on crime prevention, gang
intervention and school safety. Some SROs may assign one
officer to each middle and/or high school or one officer to work
with several middle and/or high schools, while others may assign
one officer to work with the whole district. Some SROs are on
campuses daily.
This bill raises the following questions:
Is reporting already taking place? Current law already requires
a principal or the principal's designee, frequently a vice
principal, to notify law enforcement authorities of crimes
involving assault with a firearm, an assault weapon, or a deadly
weapon or instrument; and possession or sale of controlled
substances, prior to or after suspending or expelling a pupil.
Current law also specifies that the willful failure to make a
report is an infraction punishable by a fine of up to $500 to be
paid by the principal or principal's designee. Moreover,
district police departments may likely already have working
relationships with their counterparts at the city and county
levels. For example, the Los Angeles School Police Department
already submits copies of crime reports to the appropriate law
enforcement agencies for statistical and information sharing
purposes.
Is immediate reporting critical for all offenses ? The sponsor
states that immediate reporting is necessary because the acts
required to be reported by the bill are serious crimes and the
reporting currently required by principals is not immediate.
Current law requires a principal to report prior to or after a
pupil is suspended or expelled to allow a governing board to
investigate and determine whether the suspension or expulsion is
warranted. School policy and procedures likely already require
school staff to call 911 and bring in local law enforcement for
dangerous situations (e.g., if a firearm is involved), where
there will already be a law enforcement agency report. Should
law enforcement be notified within 24 hours of an incident
involving, for example, possession of controlled substances or
for brandishing a knife, prior to a local governing board
investigation? What if the pupil wasn't really involved, but
just happened to be in the vicinity at the time of the incident?
AB 1390
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What are the ramifications for this pupil? Should the
immediate reporting by school security or police departments
proposed by this bill be limited to acts involving weapons such
as firearms and explosives only?
Is reporting the answer for at-risk youth? Concern has been
raised by the California Public Defenders Association (CPDA)
that reporting requirements may not be the best strategy in
addressing at-risk youth. CPDA states, "Schools already have
the discretion, in appropriate situations, to contact law
enforcement. In fact, research shows that the drastic
limitation on the school officials' discretion to respond to
incidents - 'zero-tolerance policies' - have done damage to
youth and contributed to 'the school to prison pipeline.' Even
the American Bar Association has condemned zero-tolerance
policies as inherently unjust: 'zero tolerance has become a
one-size-fits-all solution to all the problems that schools
confront. It has redefined students as criminals, with
unfortunate consequences?.Unfortunately, most current
[zero-tolerance] policies eliminate the common sense that comes
with discretion and, at great cost to society and to children
and families, do little to improve school safety.'"
Is education necessary ? The sponsor states that there is
underreporting currently due to administrators' lack of
understanding of what needs to be reported, the erroneous belief
that they have complied with the law when they report to the
district police department, and a disincentive to report to
avoid being identified as a persistently dangerous school
pursuant to the No Child Left Behind Act. How a school becomes
categorized as "persistently dangerous" does not involve reports
to law enforcement agencies. Perhaps there should be better
education of or stronger enforcement of the law. Guidelines can
be developed to standardize the process for reporting to law
enforcement agencies.
Arguments in Support . Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky
Delgadillo, the sponsor of the bill, states, "This bill will
assist school police and local police in immediately
coordinating reporting, tracking and investigative responses to
school crimes, leading to identification of patterns and
behaviors and better crime data analysis by both school police
and overlapping county or city agencies. This bill will protect
school children exposed to chronic violence by expediting
corrective action immediately following a serious incident."
AB 1390
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Arguments in Opposition . The California Public Defenders
Association states, "School officials already have ability to
respond immediately to any criminal incidents by notifying the
local law enforcement, and law enforcement's duty is to respond
and prepare a report. Adding an additional requirement that the
report be made in writing adds unnecessary responsibilities to
the school security and may in fact cause delay and waste
resources as responding as written reports take time to prepare.
Resources that could be put towards improving schools are
instead used for inefficient security measures, while there
[sic] very schools may be lacking basic educational resources
like textbooks and libraries."
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California District Attorneys Association
Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo (sponsor)
Lawrence E. Manion, Chief of Police, Los Angeles School Police
Department
One individual
Opposition
California Public Defenders Association (Introduced version)
Analysis Prepared by : Sophia Kwong Kim / ED. / (916) 319-2087