SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CN) — Prompted by a series of high-profile police killings including the murder of George Floyd, California lawmakers on Wednesday approved a decertification process for rogue law enforcement officers.
On a 28-9 party-line vote, state Senate Democrats sent one of the most contentious police reforms of the legislative session to Governor Gavin Newsom.
The bill’s author said the goal isn’t to target or tarnish the reputation of law enforcement officers, but rather ensure the state has a valid method of weeding out “bad apples” like it does for doctors or lawyers.
“Regardless of the walk of life or where we live, there are bad people; and just because you put on a uniform and a badge doesn’t absolve you or make you immune to being a bad person,” said state Senator Steven Bradford, D-Gardena.
Wednesday’s vote caps a multiyear struggle for Bradford and civil rights groups that have been pushing for the Legislature to act following the police killings of Californians like Stephon Clark, who was unarmed and gunned down in his grandparents’ backyard in 2018. Bradford carried a similar bill that cleared the Senate in 2020 but didn’t come up for a vote in the Assembly on the final day of a truncated session.
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 fired officers can easily take advantage of the loophole by simply signing on with another agency, a point Bradford made repeatedly while presenting his bill.
Under Bradford’s Senate Bill 2, the state would create a seven-step process for reviewing and acting on allegations of serious officer misconduct. At the conclusion of each investigation, the existing Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training could decide to decertify officers and bar them from taking future law enforcement jobs within the state.
Information used by the commission would be available for inspection under the California Public Records Act and the bill would create a nine-member advisory board appointed by the governor. The bill also reduces immunity provisions for law enforcement officers in civil lawsuits in an attempt to make it easier for victims to pursue wrongful death and other civil rights claims in state courts.
Law enforcement unions and Republican lawmakers fought the decertification bill at each step of the process, calling it a heavy-handed approach that could stymie officers’ ability to act quickly under duress.
The Peace Officer’s Research Association of California warned SB 2 would create an “inherently amateurish and potentially biased” panel to oversee the decertification process and that it ultimately “stacks the deck” against law enforcement. Others say the legislation gives the commission too much wiggle room in determining what constitutes serious misconduct.
While the opponents were able to convince Bradford to accept a series of technical amendments in recent weeks, they ripped the bill anyway Wednesday on the Senate floor.
State Senator Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, said it was unfair to lump all officers in the same category as Derek Chauvin, the white Minneapolis police officer who was convicted of murdering George Floyd this year. She cast SB 2 as a sign of disrespect to the Golden State’s massive number of law enforcement agencies.
“To label all of men and women in blue that protect us and keep our communities safe with an officer like Chauvin is unacceptable and not right; the people in blue deserve a deeper respect,” Grove said before joining the entire GOP caucus in voting against SB 2.
But Bradford, along with support from the ACLU of California and a host of prominent labor unions, was able to convince enough of his Democratic colleagues the bill was fully cooked. The measure now heads to Newsom, who can sign or veto it by Oct. 10.
“This bill has gone through a metamorphosis quite frankly,” said state Senator Sydney Kamlager, D-Los Angeles. “Bad apples put everyone’s life in danger.”
Meanwhile over in the Assembly, lawmakers approved separate legislation that would create the first statewide standard for law enforcement use of crowd control methods like tear gas and rubber bullets. Like SB 2, the bill's author said the proposal was inspired by the countless protests that erupted following Floyd's death.
“During the nationwide protests in 2020, many reports showed peaceful protesters and bystanders being seriously injured, even permanently maimed, by dangerous projectiles,” said Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego. “This bill will protect Californians’ right to safely protest by establishing statewide standards that help minimize the overuse of these dangerous weapons, while directly law enforcement on how and when they can deploy projectiles in truly life-threatening situations.”
The minimum standards for police projectiles also heads to Newsom for final approval.
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