Many California police reform advocates expressed relief after a Minnesota jury convicted former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin of murdering George Floyd. But that doesn’t mean they’re slowing down their drive to change policing in this state.
If anything, they’re pushing even harder on reform legislation, including measures that stalled in the Legislature last year during the height of the racial justice movement.
“We have a moral obligation to right the historic wrongs of these racist policies and practices that continue to plague this state and this nation,” said state Sen. Steven Bradford, D-Gardena (Los Angeles County), who chairs the California Legislative Black Caucus. “The time is now for us to act. No more kneeling and social media posts. We’ve had enough of the performative acts.”
Bradford carried one of the measures that failed to pass last year — a bill that would have revoked the professional certification of officers who use excessive force, commit sexual assault, make a false arrest or commit ethical violations such as falsifying evidence. Bradford called its failure to receive even a vote in the full Legislature “insulting” to “the thousands of voices calling for meaningful police reform.”
But law enforcement lobbyists said lawmakers should beware of quick fixes to complex issues.
“When you’re talking about police reform, it’s more important to make sure we do it right than do it right now,” said Brian Marvel, president of the Peace Officers Research Association of California. “We understand that people want to make changes. Let’s make sure we do it right, as opposed to doing something so you can go back to your constituency and say, ‘Look what we did.’ ”
Here are some bills lawmakers are considering:
Police line up along Market Street in San Francisco on June 5, during a bike protest against the killing of George Floyd.
Patricia Chang / Special to the SFGATEDecertifying officers: Bradford is trying again to pass a decertification bill that is largely similar to the one that didn’t get a vote last year.
SB2 would create a process to decertify an officer who has committed civil rights violations. Law enforcement organizations intensely opposed the bill last year, arguing that it set the standard too low for when officers could lose their badges.
Law enforcement advocates don’t like a tweak in the current legislation that changed the composition of the advisory board that would review the decertification cases. Marvel said seven of its nine members “would not be peace officers. Our concern is that there’s no other licensing board in the United States that has a similar makeup.”
Still, this year’s measure has one big thing going for it: It’s backed by state Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, D-San Diego.
911 response: State Sen. Sydney Kamlager, D-Los Angeles, has reintroduced a measure she championed in the Assembly last year known as the Crisis Act. AB118 would create a pilot program that “would send community-based organizations out into the field to respond to 911 calls, so that law enforcement doesn’t have to do that,” she said.
Kamlager said 70% of calls to 911 are nonviolent and noncriminal in nature. Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed her bill last year, saying the Office of Emergency Services “is not the appropriate location for the pilot program.” This year, Kamlager hopes to house the program in the Department of Social Services.
Marvel’s organization has not taken a position on the legislation. “We’re not opposed to having other people respond to those incidents,” he said.
Officers who intervene: Assembly Member Chris Holden, D-Pasadena, is carrying AB26, designed to protect officers who intervene when they see a colleague using excessive force. He introduced a similar measure last year, but it was bottled up in committee.
“Chauvin’s crime was brazen and demonstrated total disregard for the sanctity of life for George Floyd,” Holden said. “Equally troubling was the conduct of the officers who stood by and watched as George Floyd’s life was taken from him by Officer Chauvin. They did not intervene.”
Marvel said his organization has worked with Holden on the legislation and “may go neutral” on it.
Increase minimum age: Assembly Member Reggie Jones-Sawyer, D-Los Angeles, is carrying AB89, which would increase the minimum age for peace officers to 25 years old from the current 18. Applicants younger than 25 could qualify if they received a bachelor’s or advanced degree from a college or university. Nearly two dozen states require some college for officers.
“We’re always talking about the bad apples,” Jones-Sawyer said, “but nobody ever talks about the tree. The bad apples had to come from somewhere. This gets to the root of the fruit.”
But Marvel said that this change might hurt recruitment, which is already difficult in many areas.
“How many (18-year-olds) are going to want to work a career for several years, then start over at the very bottom?” Marvel said. His organization supports SB387, sponsored by state Sen. Anthony Portantino, D-La Canada-Flintridge (Los Angeles County), which would require recruits to have completed some basic college-level course work.
Use-of-force investigations: Assembly Member Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, is backing AB594, which would forbid a police agency from taking the lead on investigating deadly use-of-force incidents involving its own officers. Another law enforcement agency or a multiagency task force would do the job instead.
It’s similar in spirit to one reform measure that did pass the Legislature last year — a bill requiring the state attorney general’s office to investigate police killings of unarmed civilians.
Proponents said that bill was needed because county district attorneys tend to have close ties to local police agencies.
Marvel said lawmakers should gauge that law’s effects before considering McCarty’s bill.
McCarty is also carrying AB603, which would require cities to issue yearly reports on settlement costs for use-of-force cases.
“If the public knew how much money they’re spending on police settlements,” McCarty said, “they would demand more reform in their own cities.”
Secretary of State Shirley Weber, a longtime police reform advocate in the Assembly before Newsom picked her for her post this year, said that for Black people, “it’s really hard after 402 years in this country to continue to raise the same issues over and over.”
Weber said that “we have done, as African Americans, all we can do. We will continue to write legislation. We will continue to raise the issue. It is now up to the rest of America to decide if they want a better America.”
Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicle’s senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoli
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