BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1433
Page 1
Date of Hearing: March 18, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HIGHER EDUCATION
Das Williams, Chair
AB 1433 (Gatto) - As Amended: March 10, 2014
SUBJECT : Student safety.
SUMMARY : Requires postsecondary educational institutions to
establish specified policies governing the reporting of
specified crimes to law enforcement. Specifically, this bill :
1)Would require written agreements between local law enforcement
agencies and campuses to require that any report by a victim
of a Part 1 violent crime, sexual assault or hate crime that
is received by a campus law enforcement agency to be
immediately reported to the appropriate local law enforcement
agency, without identifying the victim unless the victim
consents to being identified.
2)Defines sexual assault to include, but not be limited to,
rape, forced sodomy, forced oral copulation, rape by a foreign
object, sexual battery, or threat of sexual assault.
3)Would require, by July 1, 2015, all public and private
postsecondary educational institutions to establish policies
to ensure reports of the aforementioned crimes made to any
campus employee are transmitted to campus law enforcement, or
to local law enforcement if the campus does not have law
enforcement, without identifying the victim unless the victim
consents.
4)Declares urgency, in order to ensure student safety, and would
take effect immediately.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Authorizes public and private college administrations to
establish law enforcement departments and/or services and
provides that campus law enforcement agencies have the primary
responsibility for providing police or security services,
including the investigation of criminal activity, to their
campuses.
2)Requires, under the Kristen Smart Campus Safety Act, the
AB 1433
Page 2
University of California (UC), the California State University
(CSU), California's Community Colleges (CCC), and independent
colleges that meet specified conditions to enter into specific
written agreements, by July 1, 1999, with local law
enforcement agencies regarding the coordination and
responsibilities for investigating violent crimes which occur
on campus.
3)Requires governing boards of any postsecondary educational
institution receiving public funds with a full-time equivalent
enrollment of more than 1000 students to compile a record of
all reported occurrences of specified crimes. Institutions
are required to report this information to current/former
students, employees and the media within two business days of
any request.
4)The federal Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy
and Campus Crime Statistics Act (Cleary Act) requires colleges
and universities, as a condition of federal student aid
program participation, to publish annual campus security
reports, maintain crime logs, provide timely warnings of
crimes that present a public safety risk, and maintain ongoing
crime statistics.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : Double-referral . This bill is double-referred to the
Assembly Committee on Public Safety.
Purpose of this bill . According to the author, there have been
reports at three California universities that administrators are
underreporting sexual assaults on campus and mishandling cases
in several ways, including underreporting crimes and not
conducting thorough investigations or providing appropriate
outcomes for those found culpable. The author indicates that
law enforcement agencies have expressed concern that they are
not completely aware of crime trends in their jurisdictions
because some university agreements do not require campus
security to pass information along to local law enforcement.
The author believes this bill is necessary to ensure that local
law enforcement agencies are aware of crime trends, by ensuring
campuses pass along reports of Part 1 violent crimes, sexual
assaults, and hate crimes that occur on campus. The author
believes this will alleviate concerns about some institutions
not properly reporting crime statistics because those reports
AB 1433
Page 3
will have already been brought to light under the requirement
established by this bill. The author contends this bill could
result in a closer working relationship between campuses and
local police and sheriffs' departments, which will result in
more thorough investigations, better outcomes for victims, and
safer communities.
Jurisdictional changes . Under existing law, institutions and
local law enforcement agencies are required to establish written
agreements delineating responsibilities of campus and local law
enforcement agencies. This bill would require the agreements to
ensure campus law enforcement immediately reports to local law
enforcement regarding specified crimes. It is unclear how the
reporting of the crime to local law enforcement would impact the
responsibility for investigation; would the report relinquish
campus jurisdiction and investigative responsibility to local
law enforcement? Additionally, existing law (EDC �67380)
requires written records of specified criminal and non-criminal
acts to be made available, as specified.
If the author does not intend to alter jurisdiction of local law
enforcement or campus police, the author may wish to consider
expanding upon the provisions of EDC �67380 to require campus
law enforcement to disclose to local law enforcement, rather
than requiring institutions and local law enforcement to
renegotiate jurisdictional agreements.
Employee reporting to law enforcement . This bill would require
institutions to establish policies requiring employees to
immediately transmit crime report information to campus law
enforcement or to local law enforcement if the campus does not
have law enforcement.
However, under other provisions of this bill, only crimes
reported to campus law enforcement by a victim are required to
be transmitted to local law enforcement.
If the author intends for information regarding all reported
crimes to be shared with local law enforcement, including those
where the campus law enforcement is informed by a campus
employee, the language should be clarified.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
AB 1433
Page 4
Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs
California College & University Police Chiefs Association
Community College League of California
Crime Victims United of California
Los Angeles Probation Officers' Union, AFSCME, Local 685
Riverside Sheriffs' Association
Opposition
None on File
Analysis Prepared by : Laura Metune / HIGHER ED. / (916)
319-3960