Status of Current Legislation

AB 667

Assembly Member Maienschein

Firearms: gun violence restraining orders.  

Current law authorizes a court to issue a gun violence restraining order to prohibit a person from purchasing or possessing a firearm or ammunition for a period of one to 5 years, subject to renewal for additional one- to 5-year periods, if the subject of the petition poses a significant danger of self-harm or harm to another in the near future by having a firearm and the order is necessary to prevent personal injury to the subject of the petition or another. Current law makes it a crime to own or possess a firearm in violation of a gun violence restraining order. If the court finds evidence of an extreme risk of violence, including repeated and egregious instances of specified facts, and those facts existed 12 months prior to a petition being filed, this bill would require a court to issue a gun violence restraining order for 5 years. By expanding the scope of an existing crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

AB 852

Assembly Member Jones-Sawyer

Peace officers

Current law requires the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training to establish a certification program for specified peace officers, including officers of the Department of the California Highway Patrol. Current law requires the commission to establish, among others, basic certificates for the purpose of fostering the education and experience necessary to perform general police service duties. Current law requires the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges, in consultation with specified entities, to develop a modern policing degree program and to prepare and submit a report to the Legislature by no later than June 1, 2023, outlining a plan to implement the program. Current law requires peace officers in this state to meet specified minimum standards, including age and education requirements. This bill would require a peace officer who is hired on or after January 1, 2029, to attain a modern policing degree, as specified, or a bachelor’s or other advanced degree from an accredited college or university within 36 months of commencing their employment as a peace officer.

AB 1725

Assembly Member McCarty

 Law enforcement settlements and judgments: reporting

Would require municipalities, as defined, to annually post on their internet websites specified information relating to settlements and judgments of $50,000 or more resulting from allegations of improper police conduct, including, among other information, amounts paid, broken down by individual settlement and judgment, information on bonds used to finance use of force settlement and judgment payments, and settlements or judgments paid by insurance. The bill would also require municipalities to annually post additional information pertaining to settlements and judgments, as specified, irrespective of the amount paid. By increasing requirements for local governments, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

AB 1839

Assembly Member Alanis

Peace officers: education and hiring grants

Would, subject to an appropriation, establish the Law Enforcement Officer Grant Program under the administration of the Student Aid Commission to provide grants of up to $6,000 per year to individuals enrolled in a modern policing degree program at a California community college who commit to work for 4 years as a peace officer at a law enforcement agency, as specified. The bill would require grant recipients to agree to repay the grant to the state if certain conditions for the grant are not met, except as specified. The bill would require, subject to an appropriation, the chancellor’s office to develop, in consultation with specified entities, materials to be distributed to counselors’ offices in schools serving grades 9 to 12, inclusive. The bill would require those materials to inform high school students about the existence of the modern policing degree program and the grant program described above, among other things. The bill would require the chancellor’s office to particularly target the materials for students of historically underserved and disadvantaged communities with barriers to higher education access.

AB 2002

Assembly Member Sanchez

Vehicles: public safety: Blue Envelope Program

Current law establishes the Department of Motor Vehicles, tasked with issuance and renewal of licenses to drivers. Current law requires the department to prescribe and provide suitable forms of applications, certificates of ownership, registration cards, driver’s licenses, and all other forms that are deemed necessary. This bill would, by January 1, 2026, require the department, in consultation with relevant stakeholders, to develop a Blue Envelope Program. Under the program, the bill would require the blue envelope to contain specified information for requesters with a condition or disability, as specified.

Status: 5/16/2024-Failed Deadline pursuant to Rule 61(b)(8). (Last location was APPR. SUSPENSE FILE on 4/17/2024)

AB 2020

Assembly Member Bonta

Survivors of Human Trafficking Support Act

Under current law, human trafficking is a crime and law enforcement officers who are assigned field and investigative duties are required to complete minimum training pertaining to the handling of human trafficking complaints. Current law generally provides support services for individuals who are survivors of human trafficking, including public social services and address confidentiality, as specified. Current law establishes the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training to prescribe selection and training standards for peace officers. Current law requires the commission to develop training curriculum in specified areas and to develop model policies that may be used by local law enforcement agencies, including, model policies for investigations of missing persons, elder and dependent adult abuse, and hate crimes. This bill would require the commission to, by no later than June 1, 2026, develop guidelines for interacting with survivors of human trafficking. The bill would require each law enforcement agency to, by no later than December 1, 2026, adopt a written policy for interacting with survivors of human trafficking based on the guidelines developed by the commission.

Status: 9/26/2024-A. CHAPTERED

AB 2042

Assembly Member Jackson

Police canines: standards and training

Would require the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, on or before January 1, 2026, to develop standards and training guidelines, as specified, for the use of canines by law enforcement. The bill would require each law enforcement agency in California, on or before January 1, 2027, to adopt a policy for the use of canines that, at a minimum, complies with the standards developed by the commission, and to require regular and periodic training for all canines and canine handlers that covers, at a minimum, the training guidelines developed by the commission. Because the bill would impose additional requirements on local law enforcement agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

Status: 8/15/2024-Failed Deadline pursuant to Rule 61(b)(14). (Last location was APPR. SUSPENSE FILE on 8/5/2024)

AB 2138

Assembly Member Ramos

Peace officers: tribal police pilot project.

Current law defines those persons who are peace officers in the state, grants certain authority to those individuals and their employing entities, and places certain requirements on those individuals and their employing entities. Current law also grants specified limited arrest authority to certain other persons, including federal criminal investigators and park rangers and peace officers from adjoining jurisdictions. Current federal law authorizes tribal governments to employ tribal police for the enforcement of tribal law on tribal lands. Current federal law requires the State of California to exercise criminal jurisdiction on Indian lands. Existing state law deems a tribal police officer who has been deputized or appointed by a county sheriff as a reserve or auxiliary deputy to be a peace officer in the State of California. This bill would, from July 1, 2025, until July 1, 2028, establish a pilot program under the Department of Justice and the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training granting peace officer authority to certain tribal police officers on Indian lands and elsewhere in the state under specified circumstances. The bill would authorize the department to select 3 tribal entities to participate, would set certain minimum qualifications and certification and training requirements for a tribal officer to act pursuant to this authority, and would place certain requirements on the employing tribe, including a limited waiver of sovereign immunity, and the adoption of a tribal law or resolution authorizing that exercise of authority and providing for public access to certain records.

Status: 9/28/2024-A. VETOED

AB 2215

Assembly Member Bryan

Criminal procedure: arrests

Current law provides certain circumstances under which a person arrested without a warrant may be released from custody before being taken before a magistrate, including, among others, when the arresting officer believes that insufficient grounds exist to make a criminal complaint against the person arrested or when the person is arrested for intoxication only and no further proceedings are desirable. Current law requires the record of arrest of a person released pursuant to specified circumstances to include a record of release and that the arrest be deemed a detention. This bill would authorize an arresting officer to release an arrested person from custody without bringing the person before a magistrate if the person is, subsequent to being arrested, delivered or referred to a public health or social service organization that provides services including, but not limited to, housing, medical care, treatment for alcohol or substance use disorders, psychological counseling, or employment training and education, the organization agrees to accept the delivery or referral, and no further proceedings are desirable.

AB 2541

Assembly Member Bains

Peace officer training: wandering.

Current law requires the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) to include in its basic training course adequate instruction in the handling of persons with developmental disabilities or mental illness, or both. This bill would require the commission, in consultation with specified subject matter experts and on or before January 1, 2026, to develop guidelines addressing wandering associated with Alzheimer’s disease, autism, and dementia, as specified.

AB 2621

Assembly Member Gabriel

Law Enforcement Training

Current law defines a “hate crime” as a criminal act committed, in whole or in part, because of actual or perceived characteristics of the victim, including, among other things, race, religion, disability, and sexual orientation. Current law requires the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, in consultation with specified subject-matter experts, to develop a course of instruction that trains law enforcement on, among other things, indicators of hate crimes and techniques, responses to hate crime waves against certain groups, including Arab and Islamic communities, and methods to handle incidents of hate crimes in a noncombative manner. This bill would require instruction to include identifying when a gun violence restraining order is appropriate to prevent a hate crime and the procedure for seeking a gun violence restraining order.

Status:  9/24/2024-A. CHAPTERED

AB 2710

Assembly Member Lackey

Active Shooter Incidents

Would require the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) to convene a panel of law enforcement experts to report to the Legislature and the commission, by January 1, 2027, specified topics related to active shooter incidents, including successful trainings and response protocols that have been demonstrated in active shooter incidents and the use of school resource officers on campus for threat prevention, detection, and assessment. The bill would repeal these provisions as of January 1, 2031.

Status: 5/16/2024-Failed Deadline pursuant to Rule 61(b)(8). (Last location was APPR. SUSPENSE FILE on 5/8/2024)

AB 2822

Assembly Member Gabriel

Domestic violence

Current law requires every law enforcement agency to develop, adopt, and implement written policies and standards for officers’ responses to domestic violence calls. Current law requires each law enforcement agency to develop an incident report form the includes, among other things, a notation of whether the officer or officers who responded to the domestic violence call found it necessary, for the protection of the peace officer or other persons present, to inquire of the victim, the alleged abuser, or both, whether a firearm or other deadly weapon was present at the location, and, if there is an inquiry, whether that inquiry disclosed the presence of a firearm or other deadly weapon. This bill would additionally require a law enforcement agency to include in the incident report form a space for officers to document whether a firearm or deadly weapon was removed from the location of the domestic violence call.

AB 2923

Assembly Member Jones-Sawyer

Peace officers: public complaints.

Current law requires each department or agency that employs peace officer to establish a procedure to investigate complaints by members of the public against the personnel of the department or agency. This bill would require a form used during the complaint process to include a provision inquiring whether the complaint includes an allegation of racial or identify profiling and a space to describe the allegation. The bill would define “complaint” for these purposes to mean a report, given either in writing or verbally, that brings to the attention of a department or agency an incident during which the complainant perceives that a department or agency employee engaged in misconduct, as specified.

AB 3021

Assembly Member Kalra

Criminal procedure: interrogations

Current law prohibits the prosecuting attorney, attorney for the defendant, or investigator for either the prosecution or the defendant from interviewing, questioning, or speaking to a victim or witness whose name has been disclosed by the defendant pursuant to current law without first clearly identifying themselves and identifying the full name of the agency by whom they are employed, and identifying whether they represent, or have been retained by, the prosecution or the defendant. Under current law, if an interview takes place in person, the party is also required to show the victim or witness a business card, official badge, or other form of official identification before commencing the interview or questioning. This bill would require a peace officer, as defined, a prosecuting attorney, or an investigator for the prosecution, prior to interviewing an immediate family member of a person who has been killed or seriously injured by a peace officer, to clearly identify themselves, if the interview takes place in person, to show identification, and to clearly state specified information, including that the family member has the right to ask about the status of their family member prior to answering questions, has the right to remain silent, and before speaking with the interviewer, can consult with a trusted person and can have that person with them while they speak to the interviewer.

AB 3027

Assembly Member Bains

Crime: transnational repression

Would state that it is the policy of the state to protect individuals and organizations against transnational repression and would define that term to mean the actions of a foreign government or agents of a foreign government involving the transgression of national borders in order to intimidate, silence, coerce, harass, or harm members of diaspora and exile communities or organizations that advocate for individuals in diaspora and exile communities in order to prevent their exercise of their human rights, as defined. The bill would specify that it is the policy of the state to pursue criminal prosecutions against those who engage in transnational repression and to provide support services to victims who are targeted by transnational repression, among other things.

AB 3038

Assembly Member Essayli

School safety: armed school resource officers. 

Existing law authorizes the governing board of a school district to establish a security department under the supervision of a chief of security as designated by, and under the direction of, the superintendent of the school district. Existing law also authorizes the governing board of a school district to establish a school police department under the supervision of a school chief of police and to employ peace officers.This bill would require a school district or charter school to hire or contract with at least one armed school resource officer, as defined, authorized to carry a loaded firearm to be present at each school of the school district or charter school during regular school hours and any other time when pupils are present on campus, phased in by certain grade spans, as provided. By imposing an additional requirement on school districts and charter schools, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

Status: 4/25/2024-Failed Deadline pursuant to Rule 61(b)(5). (Last location was ED. on 3/11/2024)

AB 3241

Assembly Member Pacheco

Law Enforcement: police canines

Existing law requires all law enforcement agencies to maintain a use of force policy, as specified, and requires the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) to implement courses of instruction for the training of law enforcement officers in the use of force. This bill would require the commission, on or before July 1, 2026, to study and issue recommendations to the Legislature on the use of canines by law enforcement, as specified. This bill contains other related provisions and other existing laws.

SB 50

Senator Bradford

 Vehicles: enforcement

Current case law deems a temporary detention of a person during an automobile stop by the police, even if only for a brief period and for a limited purpose, a seizure, under the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, and as such, requires the actions to be reasonable. Under current case law, the decision to stop an automobile is reasonable if the police have probable cause to believe that a traffic violation has occurred. Current case law holds that constitutional reasonableness of traffic stops does not depend on the actual motivations of the individual officers involved and that ulterior motives do not invalidate police conduct that is justifiable on the basis of probable cause to believe that a violation of law has occurred. This bill would prohibit a peace officer from stopping or detaining the operator of a motor vehicle or bicycle for a low-level infraction, as defined, unless a separate, independent basis for a stop exists or more than one low-level infraction is observed. The bill would state that a violation of these provisions is not grounds for a defendant to move for return of property or to suppress evidence. The bill would authorize a peace officer who does not have grounds to stop a vehicle or bicycle, but can determine the identity of the owner, to send a citation or warning letter to the owner.

SB 400

Senator Wahab

Peace officers: confidentiality of records

The California Public Records Act generally requires public records to be open for inspection by the public. Current law provides numerous exceptions to this requirement. Under current law, the personnel records of peace officers and custodial officers are confidential and not subject to public inspection. Current law provides certain exemptions to this confidentiality, including the reports, investigations, and findings of certain incidents involving the use of force by a peace officer. This bill would clarify that this confidentiality does not prohibit an agency that formerly employed a peace officer or custodial officer from disclosing the termination for cause of that officer, as specified.

SB 989

Senator Ashby

Domestic violence: deaths

Current law generally prohibits a copy, reproduction, or facsimile of any kind of a photograph, negative, or print, including instant photographs and video recordings, of the body, or any portion of the body, of a deceased person, taken by or for the coroner at the scene of death or in the course of a postmortem examination or autopsy, from being made or disseminated. Current law authorizes the use of a copy, reproduction, or facsimile described above in specified circumstances, including for use in a potential civil action if the coroner receives written authorization from a legal heir or representative of that person before the civil action is filed or while the action is pending. Current law requires the identity of the legal heir to be verified by, including other things, a declaration under the penalty of perjury that the individual is a legal heir or representative of the deceased person. This bill would additionally authorize a family member of the deceased, as defined, to provide the coroner with written authorization for use or potential use of a copy, reproduction, or facsimile described above in a civil action or proceeding that relates to the death of that person. The bill would also require the identity of the family member to be verified as described above.

SB 1020

Senator Bradford

Law enforcement agency regulations: shooting range targets

 Current law requires law enforcement agencies to maintain specified policies, including policies regulating the use of force and the use of certain defensive weapons. Current law requires each peace officer to complete all pre-service and in-service training mandated by the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training. This bill would require each law enforcement agency and basic course presenter to prohibit the use, as specified, of ethnic shooting targets, as defined.

SB 1122

Senator Seyarto

Peace officers: educational requirements

Current law requires the office of the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges to develop a modern policing degree program, with the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training and other stakeholders to serve as advisors, as specified, and to submit a report on recommendations to the Legislature outlining a plan to implement the program on or before June 1, 2023. Current law requires the report to include, among other things, recommendations to include both the modern policing degree program and a bachelor’s degree in the discipline of their choosing as minimum education requirements for employment as a peace officer. Current law requires the commission to adopt the recommended criteria within 2 years of when the office of the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges submits its report to the Legislature. This bill would specify that a bachelor’s degree or an associate’s degree required for employment as a peace officer under these provisions may be obtained after completion of the Peace Officer Standards and Training program and within 36 months of employment as a peace officer.

SB 1264

Senator Grove

Employment discrimination: cannabis use

Current law prohibits an employer from discriminating against a person in hiring, termination, or a term or condition of employment, or otherwise penalizing a person because of the person’s use of cannabis off the job and away from the workplace or an employer-required drug screening test that has found the person to have nonpsychoactive cannabis metabolites in their hair, blood, urine, or other bodily fluids. Current law exempts certain applicants and employees from those provisions, including applicants and employees hired for positions that require a federal government background investigation or security clearance, as specified. This bill, until January 1, 2028, would exempt from the provision prohibiting employers from discriminating against a person for use of cannabis off the job and away from the workplace applicants and employees in sworn positions within law enforcement agencies who have certain functions, including functions related civil enforcement matters or coroner functions.

SB 1379

Senator Dodd

Public Employees’ Retirement Law: reinstatement: County of Solano

The Public Employees’ Retirement Law creates the Public Employees’ Retirement System (PERS), which provides pension and other benefits to members of the system and prescribes limitations on the service that retired members may perform, without the member reinstating in the system, for employers that participate in the system. The California Public Employees’ Pension Reform Act of 2013 (PEPRA) also prescribes limitations on the activities of retired members of these retirement systems, which supersede the provisions of PERS with which they conflict. Under both PERS and PEPRA, a retired member is generally subject to a limit of 960 hours of employment within a calendar or fiscal year, depending on the administrator of the system, for specified employers without reinstating in the system. This bill would create an exception from the above-described limit for hours worked by a retired person in an appointment by the Solano County Sheriff’s Office to perform a function or functions regularly performed by a deputy sheriff, evidence technician, or communications operator, subject to meeting certain requirements.

SB 1489

Senator McGuire

Peace officers: Peace Officer Standards Accountability Advisory Board

Current law creates the Peace Officer Standards Accountability Advisory Board, the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, and the Peace Officer Standards Accountability Division. Current law requires the board to report annually on the activities of the division, board, and commission relating to peace officer certification, including the number of applications for certification, the events reported, the number of investigations conducted, and the number of certificates surrendered or revoked. This bill would require the board to prepare the report no later than February 1 of each year.

Status: 8/31/2024-Failed Deadline pursuant to Rule 61(b)(17). (Last location was THIRD READING on 8/15/2024)

SB 1518

Committee on Public Safety

Public Safety Omnibus

Current law requires law enforcement agencies to provide victims with specified information about victims’ rights and resources. This bill would fix an erroneous cross-reference in these provisions.