Lawmakers’ bill would decertify problem police officers.
California is currently one of only 5 states without that authority
As protesters nationwide demand police reform, California lawmakers this week introduced bills to strip problem police officers of their badges and better equip police agencies from hiring officers with a checkered past.
State Sen. Steven Bradford, DGardena, introduced SB731, which would create a process for the state to decertify law enforcement officers convicted of certain crimes or terminated for misconduct.
Currently, California is one of five states without the authority to take away an officer’s badge for crimes and serious misconduct.
“This is an important moment for the country as well as for California. Our criminal justice system must be fundamentally built with equity and accountability in mind,” Bradford said in a statement on the bill. “It is unacceptable that a cycle of unanswered injustices exists, where officers fired for misconduct are rehired by another department, and very few are ever held accountable.”
Bradford, a Los Angeles County Democrat, has named the bill the Kenneth Ross Jr. Police Decertification Act of 2020. A Gardena police officer with a history of shootings shot and killed Ross in 2018. Ross, an unarmed Black man, was running from police at the time of the shooting. Officers were responding to reports that Ross moments earlier fired several shots from a handgun.
The proposed bill comes after a statewide investigative series by the Bay Area News Group and other news organizations published last fall that highlighted how officers can continue to work in law enforcement despite criminal convictions and other misconduct. The news organizations’ investigation found at least 80 officers convicted of crimes who still were working in California law enforcement.
The series also focused on the Kern County city of McFarland, a troubled police force cited in a bill authored by state Assemblyman Rudy Salas, D-Bakersfield. AB1299 would require law enforcement agencies to complete misconduct investigations of their officers and notify the state’s Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training so the findings can be reviewed by any department that next hires the police officer.
According to the proposed legislation, misconduct includes complaints that likely would result in the termination, demotion or suspension of an officer for 30 days or more, if the charges were sustained.
In the Central Valley town of McFarland, nearly 1 of every 5 officers hired over the past decade had either been sued or fired from another department for misconduct or convicted of a crime. Former
Chief Scot Kimble was convicted earlier this year of forcing one of his officers to remodel the chief’s home and used public money to pay for the work. Kimble accepted a plea deal that forced him to resign from his new job as chief in the city of Arvin, but because he was convicted of a misdemeanor the state has no authority to prevent him from getting another law enforcement job, if somebody wants to hire him.
“This bill will provide more background information to our local departments to make sure that they are not hiring bad officers,” Salas said in a statement, according to the Sacramento Bee.
The bills are among several police reforms bills under consideration in Sacramento. Bradford also has authored SB203, which prevents police from interrogating juveniles up to age 17 without allowing the minors to first consult with legal counsel. State law currently only requires minors up to age 15 be given the opportunity to meet with lawyers before an interrogation.
Sen. Nancy Skinner, DBerkeley, on Monday announced an effort to reform and broaden SB1421, the landmark 2018 law granting public access to police disciplinary records of officers involved in shootings and other uses of force, as well as officers disciplined for sexual misconduct and dishonesty.