By Shaun Rundle, Deputy Director.
On Thursday of this week some of the biggest bills that CPOA has been lobbying in 2018 meet their fates in Senate and Assembly Appropriations Committee hearings. These hearings, known as the Appropriations Suspense File, list bills with extremely high costs for California to implement. One of the leading bills on this file is AB 931, of which we detailed the costs impacts to both POST and local agencies in the bill’s fiscal hearing last week. After this week these high-cost bills will either die in committee or move on to full debate on the Assembly or Senate floor.
While the Legislature enjoyed their month-long summer recess in July, I lobbied various legislative offices on these costly bills that CPOA also felt were poor public policy. Some legislative staff understood our points, while others believed their bosses felt the bills were “just too important.”
The bills I heavily focused on, which will be heard on August 16th in Suspense File hearings are:
- AB 748 (Ting-D)-Allows for public disclosure of audio or video recordings of a critical incident (defined as involving use of force, violation of law, or violation of agency policy).
Fiscal impacts: Ongoing CHP costs of $520,000 annually for positions within Internal Affairs to review and investigate incidents, over $400,000 to DOJ for new position(s), and hundreds of thousands to local agencies to review, redact and release records.
CPOA Position: Opposed
- AB 931 (Weber-D)-Would revise use of force standards for peace officers to only allow when “necessary” as opposed to “reasonable.”
Fiscal impacts: One-time CHP costs in excess of $4M, unknown retraining costs to CDCR, Dept. of Fish & Wildlife, UC and Cal State police, and other state agencies, and potentially millions in local court costs. Local agency costs are expected to be astronomical in overtime and backfill costs for 90,000 officers to be retrained.
CPOA Position: Opposed
- SB 978 (Bradford-D)-Requires POST and every local LE agency to post on their website all documents and materials that would otherwise be requested through a Public Records Act request.
Fiscal impacts: Hundreds of thousands of dollars to POST to determine information to be disclosed, and millions to local agencies to comply with posting information online.
CPOA Position: Opposed
- SB 1186 (Hill-D)-Requires agencies to have a Surveillance Use Policy approved by your governing body at a public meeting.
Fiscal impacts: DOJ reports needing in excess of $400,000 to establish surveillance use policy. One-time CHP costs of over $500,000 to develop a database, and possibly millions of dollars locally for agencies to develop and implement policies.
CPOA Position: Opposed
- SB 1421 (Skinner-D)-Makes specified peace officer personnel records subject to Public Records Act disclosure.
Fiscal impacts: DOJ costs of over $200,000 to handle PRA requests and litigation, potential millions in non-reimbursable costs to local agencies to comply.
CPOA Position: Opposed
- SB 1437 (Skinner-D)-Limits murder liability for individuals who did not actually commit the murder.
Fiscal impacts: One-time costs to state’s General Fund in the millions for courts to hold resentencing hearings and ongoing costs for CDCR in excess of $200,000 to update records.
CPOA Position: Opposed