SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CN) — California lawmakers on Tuesday advanced contentious legislation that would create a decertification process for rogue officers and is intended to give victims of police violence a better shot in civil court.
Calling it a watershed moment for criminal justice reform in the nation’s most populous state, a California Senate committee voted 7-2 in favor of what both proponents and critics consider to be the most impactful police reform bill of the year.
During an emotional marathon hearing, the bill’s author recited the names of Black Americans recently killed by police and argued California’s refusal to update archaic policing standards continues to stain its progressive image.
“We lead in technology, we lead in environment, we lead in all those things that are important except for criminal justice reform,” said state Senator Steven Bradford, D-Gardena.
Reviving a proposal that stalled last year, Bradford and civil rights groups are pushing for a statewide decertification process for law enforcement officers convicted of serious crimes or fired for misconduct. They also want to update the state’s Tom Bane Civil Rights Act and make it easier for victims to pursue civil claims in state court by reducing legal immunity for officers.
Currently, California is one of four states along with Hawaii, New Jersey and Rhode Island without official processes to revoke the certificates of disreputable officers. Critics say officers fired for misconduct can easily take advantage of the loophole by simply signing on with another agency.
Under Senate Bill 2, the state would create an advisory board consisting of both members of the public and law enforcement to review allegations of officer misconduct. In conjunction with the existing Peace Officer Standards Accountability Advisory Board, the new board would have the power to revoke an officer’s certification and make all related records public.
But by lowering the burden of proof standard under the state’s Civil Rights Act, law enforcement groups argue the enhanced threat of costly lawsuits will have a negative impact on policing. Aside from individual officers, they claim cities and counties could be the targets of a flood of future litigation.
“Given that officers are often required to make split-second decisions under tense and rapidly evolving circumstances, one can see how easy it would be to prove this lowered standard,” the California Police Chiefs Association wrote in an opposition letter. “Financial impacts to cities will also likely be incredibly significant, given this new standard.”
The California State Sheriffs’ Association cast SB 2 as both a financial and public safety threat.
“We are concerned that the language removing employee immunity from state civil liability will result in individual peace officers hesitating or failing to act out of fear that actions they believe to be lawful may result in litigation and damages. In so doing, SB 2 will very likely jeopardize public safety and diminish our ability to recruit, hire, and retain qualified individuals,” it said.
However, many law enforcement groups that adamantly fought against a state decertification process last year have apparently had a change of heart.
Dozens of police chiefs testified they no longer had a problem with the idea of officers losing their jobs for misconduct but instead were concerned about losing their governmental immunity.
“I support decertification but am opposed to SB 2 as proposed,” one-by-one the officers called in to the hearing and repeated from a prepared script.
Bradford, chair of the Legislative Black Caucus, says the bill is inspired by the death of Kenneth Ross Jr. who was gunned down in 2018 by a Gardena officer who transferred after multiple other shootings at a nearby department. Bradford has courted a broad group of supporters, including state Senate President Toni Atkins, ACLU of California, California Public Defenders Association and Consumer Attorneys of California.