California Senate Bill 1421 (2018)

Last updated
California Senate Bill 35
Seal of California.svg
California State Legislature
  • An act to amend Sections 65400 and 65582.1 of, and to add and repeal Section 65913.4 of, the Government Code, relating to housing.
Enacted by 2017-18 session of the California State Legislature
EnactedSeptember 30, 2018
Signed by Jerry Brown
Effective January 1, 2019
Introduced by Nancy Skinner
Keywords
Police Brutality, California
Status: Current legislation

SB 1421, Senate Bill 1421, or Peace Officers: Release of Records, is a California state law that makes police records relating to officer use-of-force incidents, sexual assault, and acts of dishonesty accessible under the California Public Records Act. [1] The bill was signed into law by then-governor Jerry Brown on September 30, 2018, and took effect on January 1, 2019. [2]

Contents

State Senator Nancy Skinner introduced the bill and it was sponsored by advocacy groups including the ACLU of California, Anti Police-Terror Project, Black Lives Matter, California Faculty Association, California News Publishers Association, and Youth Justice Coalition. [3]

Details of the bill

Newly available information

Records related to:

Redactions

Only the following may be redacted:

Disclosure delays

Disclosure may be delayed when:

Additional details

Loopholes

Only sustained findings are required to be released. When an officer resigns the findings are not considered sustained and the records remains hidden. [4] This loophole was used by Paso Robles Police Department to avoid releasing investigation records relating to a rape accusation about former Sgt. Christopher McGuire. [5]

Response

When SB 1421 took effect on January 1, 2019, there was disagreement about if the law applies to records before the law took place. [6] In April, Karl Olson, a San Francisco attorney, said there are as many as 20 lawsuits related to requests seeking access to records. [7] In March, over 170 agencies were fighting the new law. [8] Attempts to block the release of records mostly failed. [8]

Delays

Six months after the law took effect, many of the state's largest law enforcement agencies had produced little to no records. [8]

In March 2021, the San Francisco Police Department said it would take 10 years to get through its backlog of record requests. [11]

Fees

Several law enforcement agencies requested significant fees for access to records. [8]

Destruction

Cities destroyed records before the law took place. [8] Yuba County destroyed records just after the law took effect. [8] County officials claimed the purge was routine despite the fact that many of the records were years past their required retention dates. [8]

Findings

Here are some examples of records released due to SB 1421.

Expansion via California Senate Bill 16 (2021)

SB 16, which was approved by Governor Gavin Newsom in September 2021, [19] makes more police disciplinary records available such as records about: [20]

Expansion via California Senate Bill 776 (2019)

In June 2020, during the George Floyd protests, Senator Nancy Skinner introduced Senate Bill 776 to expand upon SB 1421. [21] [22]

SB 776 would:

On September 1, 2020, SB 776 was ordered to the Inactive list and on November 11, 2020, SB 776 died on the Inactive List. [23]

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References

  1. "Bill Text - SB-1421 Peace officers: release of records". leginfo.legislature.ca.gov. Retrieved 2020-06-21.
  2. "When police misconduct occurs, records often stay secret. One mom's fight to change that". www.usatoday.com. Retrieved 2020-06-21.
  3. "Everything You Need to Know about SB 1421 and AB 748". League of California Cities. October 17, 2019. Retrieved June 21, 2020.
  4. Hoggard, Corin (2019-06-19). "Floodgates open on records from internal police investigations". ABC30 Fresno. Retrieved 2020-06-28.
  5. The Tribune Editorial Board (March 13, 2019). "Police transparency law is shielding bad cops — and state lawmakers need to fix it". The Tribune.
  6. Damien, Christopher. "Riverside County judge delays release of police misconduct records at request of deputies' union". Desert Sun. Retrieved 2020-06-28.
  7. Stanton, Sam (April 1, 2019). "California court upholds public's right to view police misconduct records". The Sacramento Bee.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 "California cops are withholding public records despite new law saying they can't". Desert Sun. Retrieved 2020-06-28.
  9. Calix, Brianna (March 1, 2019). "Fresno says it wants to be transparent, but denies records requests on police shootings". The Fresno Bee.
  10. "Editorial: Becerra, coddler of bad cops, offers hypocritical post-Floyd reforms". The Mercury News. 2020-06-21. Retrieved 2020-06-28.
  11. Balakrishnan, Eleni (2021-11-23). "Can Supes force police to follow breakthrough accountability law?". Mission Local. Retrieved 2021-11-28.
  12. Valine, Kevin (November 27, 2019). "Bodycam captures final, frantic moments before Ceres officers fire on pickup driver". The Modesto Bee.
  13. "Records released in two high-profile San Francisco police shootings". The San Francisco Examiner. 2019-06-19. Retrieved 2020-06-28.
  14. "SF police acted within policy in killing of Amilcar Perez-Lopez, report finds". SFChronicle.com. 2019-09-04. Retrieved 2020-06-28.
  15. "Fullerton releases 2,400 pages of reports in the police beating death of Kelly Thomas". Orange County Register. 2020-05-20. Retrieved 2020-06-07.
  16. "'CopWatch SF' - Public Defender Unveils Database Of San Francisco Police Officers' Publicly Available Records". 2020-11-19. Retrieved 2020-11-23.
  17. DeBolt, David (2022-06-03). "Oakland police officer was fired for sexually exploiting a woman struggling with mental illness". The Oaklandside. Retrieved 2022-06-05.
  18. "San Jose launches site for searching police records". KALW. 2022-12-06. Retrieved 2022-12-13.
  19. "Bill Status". leginfo.legislature.ca.gov. Retrieved 2021-11-28.
  20. "Police accountability: Transparency measure SB16 faces crucial test in California legislature". The Mercury News. 2021-08-26. Retrieved 2021-11-28.
  21. "Bill would broaden and speed up access to California police disciplinary records and make complaints about racist cops public". The Mercury News. 2020-06-29. Retrieved 2020-07-06.
  22. "Bill Text - SB-776 Peace officers: release of records". leginfo.legislature.ca.gov. Retrieved 2020-07-06.
  23. "Bill Status".