BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                           Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair

                                           1738 (Tran)
          
          Hearing Date:  06/28/2010           Amended: 05/24/2010
          Consultant:  Jacqueline Wong-HernandezPolicy Vote: Public Safety  
          7-0
          _________________________________________________________________ 
          ____
          BILL SUMMARY: AB 1738 would expand the existing law requiring  
          state and local law enforcement agencies to provide domestic  
          violence victims with a free copy of the domestic violence  
          incident report to include family members and additional  
          representatives, as specified.
          _________________________________________________________________ 
          ____
                            Fiscal Impact (in thousands)

           Major Provisions                 2010-11              2011-12          
                 2012-13               Fund
                                                                  
          Expands state mandate          Likely minor; possibly  
          reimbursable             General/Local
          _________________________________________________________________ 
          ____
          STAFF COMMENTS:  In 1999, AB 403 (Romero) required local law  
          enforcement agencies to provide one free copy of a domestic  
          violence incident report to the victim. Prior to this  
          legislation, local law enforcement could, and often did, charge  
          fees for copies of domestic violence incident reports. AB 403  
          also required law enforcement to retain those records, and make  
          them available, for five years; prior law required local law  
          enforcement to retain incident reports for two years. The new  
          requirements constituted a state mandate on local law  
          enforcement and, later, a test claim was filed.
          
          SB 1265 (Alpert, 2002) expanded the requirements of AB 403 to  
          include providing one free copy of a domestic violence incident  
          report to a representative of the victim, if the victim is  
          deceased. Representatives included the surviving spouse,  
          surviving child (over age 18), domestic partner, surviving  
          parent, surviving adult relative, or a public administrator,  
          subject to limitations. This bill was deemed, by legislative  
          counsel, to constitute an additional state mandate on local law  
          enforcement. No mandate claim on this bill's addition to the  










          domestic violence incident report mandate has been filed.

          In 2003, a mandate claim was approved for AB 403, requiring the  
          state to reimburse local law enforcement agencies for their  
          costs related to storing domestic violence incident reports for  
          an additional three years, in a way that made copies readily  
          available to a victim requesting a report. In the 2009-10  
          Budget, the state paid $160,000 General Fund to reimburse local  
          law enforcement for the provisions of this mandate. 

          This bill would create a minor expansion to the provisions of SB  
          1265, by requiring local law enforcement to provide one free  
          copy of a domestic violence incident report to specified  
          representatives of the victim, even if the victim is not  
          deceased. Requesting representatives would be required to show  
          identification, and a signed authorization from the victim and,  
          presumably, local law enforcement would verify in this  
          information. The provisions of this bill could be considered an  
          expansion of duties, and of the current reimbursable mandate.  
          Any workload increase and reimbursable expenses, however, would  
          likely be very minor.