Amended
IN
Assembly
March 16, 2021 |
Introduced by Assembly (Coauthors: Assembly Members Cervantes, Daly, Flora, Grayson, Irwin, Lackey, Low, O’Donnell, Quirk-Silva, Ramos, Rodriguez, Blanca Rubio, and Villapudua) |
December 07, 2020 |
The bill would require an agency employing peace officers to report to the commission the termination or separation from employment of a peace officer with any complaint, charge, allegation, or investigation into the serious misconduct of a peace officer, to complete the investigation into any such misconduct, and to report the results of the investigation and resulting administrative action to the commission.
(a)No later than January 1, 2022, the Governor shall establish the Peace Officer Standards Accountability Advisory Board, hereafter referred to in this chapter as the board.
(b)The purpose of the board shall be to make recommendations on the decertification of peace officers to the commission for final determination.
(c)The protection of the public shall be the highest priority for the board as it upholds the standards for peace officers in California. Whenever the protection of the public is inconsistent with other interests sought to be promoted, the protection of the public shall be paramount.
(d)The board
shall consist of 10 members, as follows:
(1)Three members shall be peace officers or former peace officers with substantial experience as the head of an agency or at an executive rank. These members shall be appointed by the Governor.
(2)Two members shall be peace officers or former peace officers with substantial experience at a management rank in internal investigations or disciplinary proceedings of peace officers, appointed by the Governor.
(3)Two members shall be members of the public, who shall not be former peace officers, who have substantial experience working at nonprofit or academic institutions on issues related to criminal justice, or experience determining peace officer disciplinary appeals as a hearing officer or member of a civil service board or commission. One of these members shall be appointed by the Governor and one by the Speaker of the Assembly.
(4)Two members shall be members of the public, who shall not be former peace officers, who have substantial experience working at community-based organizations on issues related to criminal justice. One of these members shall be appointed by the Governor and one by the Senate Rules Committee.
(5)One member shall be an attorney, who shall not be a former peace officer, with substantial professional experience involving oversight of peace officers, appointed by the Governor.
(e)Except as otherwise provided in subdivision (f), each member shall be appointed for a term of three years and shall hold office until the appointment of the member’s successor or until one year has elapsed since the expiration of the term for which the member was appointed, whichever
occurs first. Vacancies occurring shall be filled by appointment for the unexpired term of a person with the same qualification for appointment as the person being replaced. No person shall serve more than two terms consecutively. The Governor shall remove from the board any peace officer member whose certification as a peace officer has been revoked. The Governor may, after hearing, remove any member of the board for neglect of duty or other just cause, including any demonstrated bias or inability to maintain impartiality regarding allegations of misconduct against a peace officer.
(f)Of the members initially appointed to the board, three shall be appointed for a term of one year, three for a term of two years, and three for a term of three years. Successor appointments shall be made pursuant to subdivision (e).
(g)Each member of the board shall receive a per diem of three
hundred fifty dollars ($350) for each day actually spent in the discharge of official duties, including reasonable time spent in preparation for public hearings, and shall be reimbursed for travel and other expenses necessarily incurred in the performance of official duties. Upon request of a member based on financial necessity, the commission shall arrange and make direct payment for travel or other necessities rather than providing reimbursement.
(a)A certified peace officer shall have their certification suspended or revoked, and an applicant shall have their application for certification denied, upon a determination that the peace officer or applicant has done any of the following:
(1)The person is or has become ineligible to hold office as a peace officer pursuant to Section 1029 of the Government Code.
(2)The person has been terminated for cause from employment as a peace officer for serious misconduct.
(b)The commission shall adopt by regulation a definition of “serious misconduct” that shall serve as the criteria to be considered for ineligibility
for, or suspension or revocation of, certification. This definition shall, without limitation, include all of the following:
(1)Dishonesty, including, but not limited to, false statements, filing false reports, tampering with, falsifying, destroying, or concealing evidence, perjury, and tampering with data recorded by a body-worn camera or other recording device for purposes of concealing misconduct.
(2)Abuse of power, including, but not limited to, intimidating witnesses, knowingly obtaining a false confession, and knowingly making a false arrest.
(3)Physical abuse, including, but not limited to, the use of excessive force or failure to reasonably intervene when excessive force is used.
(4)Sexual assault, as described in subdivision (b) of Section 832.7.
(5)Bias on the basis of race, national origin, religion, gender identity or expression, housing status, sexual orientation, mental or physical disability, or other protected status in violation of law or department policy or inconsistent with a peace officer’s obligation to carry out their duties in a fair and unbiased manner.
(6)Participation in organized criminal operations.
(c)Each law enforcement agency is responsible for the investigation of allegations of serious misconduct, regardless of the subject peace officer’s employment status. The commission shall have access, as necessary, to review the investigative file and administrative appeal record of an agency, which may include prior complaints in the peace officer’s record. The commission will only have authority to review these files for purposes of
decertification.
(d)A law enforcement agency shall notify the commission, within 10 days after a peace officer employed by the agency has become the subject of three or more allegations of serious misconduct within a five-year period, to review the peace officer’s file and any investigation carried out by the agency.
(e)If the commission finds that a thorough investigation into serious misconduct was not completed, the commission shall notify the law enforcement agency of this finding and the agency shall respond in writing within 30 days.
(f)The commission shall post both its findings and the written response from law enforcement on its internet website. Prior to posting this information, the commission shall remove all personal identifying information of the agency, the individual officers involved, or any other
parties involved.
(a)Every law enforcement agency, including any police department, sheriff’s department, or other entity that employs any peace officer described in Section 830.1, 830.2 with the exception of those described in subdivision (d) of that section, Section 830.3, 830.32, or 830.33, or any other peace officer employed by an agency that participates in the Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) program, shall notify the commission within 10 days, in a form approved by the commission, after a peace officer employed by that agency separates from employment, including, without limitation, any termination, resignation, or retirement in lieu of termination or when pending allegations of serious misconduct.
(b)The notification described in subdivision
(a) shall include, as applicable, a summary of the allegations known to the law enforcement agency at the time, and the status of any administrative appeal pursuant to the Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights Act. Supplemental notification shall be provided once the appeal is exhausted. The supplemental notification shall indicate whether the termination was sustained as defined in Section 832.8.
(c)If a peace officer resigns or retires with a pending complaint, charge, or investigation of serious misconduct, the employing agency shall do all of the following:
(1)Specify in the notification to the commission that the officer has resigned or retired with a pending complaint, charge, or investigation for serious misconduct.
(2)Specify in the notification the specific nature of the complaint, charge, or investigation, including a brief summary of the allegations of serious misconduct.
(3)Complete the investigation in a thorough and unbiased manner.
(4)Complete the investigation within one year after the date the conduct was discovered by the agency, unless a reasonable extension is needed for any reason described in paragraph (2) of subdivision (d) of Section 3304 of the Government Code.
(5)Within 10 days after the completion of the investigation, report to the commission on whether each charge of serious misconduct was sustained, not sustained, unfounded, or exonerated.
(6)In the event of a sustained of serious misconduct, include a summary of facts in the report to the commission.
(d)(1)An individual who resigns or retires in lieu of an investigation for reasons of serious misconduct shall have their eligibility placed into an inactive status by the commission until final adjudication by the commission.
(2)An individual who has been placed into an inactive or ineligible status by the commission shall not be appointed as a peace officer.
(3)The Peace Officer Standards Accountability Advisory Board shall convene to review reports received by the commission from law enforcement agencies pursuant to this section and shall make recommendations to the commission regarding what action, if any, should be taken against the subject peace officer’s certification.
(e)The full commission shall review all findings and recommendations made by the board and shall adopt
the recommendation of the board if is supported by clear and convincing evidence. In any case in which the commission reaches a different result than the board, it shall set forth its analysis and reasons for reaching a different result in writing.
(f)Notwithstanding any other law, meetings and records of the board and review by the commission under this section shall be public.
(g)(1)The commission shall include the information reported pursuant to this section in a peace officer’s profile, in a form determined by the commission, and in a manner that may be accessed by the subject of the profile, any employing law enforcement agency of the subject of the profile, any law enforcement agency that is performing a preemployment background investigation of the subject of the profile, or to the commission when necessary for the purposes of decertification.
(2)If an agency reports to the commission that an investigation resulted in a finding that a charge is unfounded or not sustained, the commission shall remove any reference to the charge, complaint, or investigation from the peace officer’s profile.
(h)(1)A certificate holder or applicant shall be entitled to a hearing before an administrative law judge after suspension or revocation of the certificate. The hearing shall be conducted pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act (Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code), and is subject to any appeal process contained in the act or any other administrative procedures adopted by the commission. The hearing shall be held in abeyance during the pendency, if any, of the certificate holder’s administrative appeal as provided in the Public Safety Officers
Procedural Bill of Rights Act. Within 30 days after a termination for serious misconduct is sustained, as defined in Section 832.8, the hearing shall commence. The record of the administrative appeal that resulted in a sustained finding shall be admissible in the hearing. The hearing shall be confidential, except as provided in Section 832.7, and the identity of any individual whose license is suspended or revoked shall be a public record.
(2)If a court determines that the sustained finding was unfounded or not sustained, upon request of the law enforcement officer, the commission shall remove any reference to the charge, complaint, or investigation from the peace officer’s profile.
(i)The commission may adopt regulations to carry out this section.
(j)For purposes of this section, the term “serious misconduct” has
the same meaning as in Section 13510.8.