LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
CAPITOL Update
By Chief Jennifer Tejada, Chair of the Law and Legislative Committee
The Cal Chiefs’ Legislative Committee hit the ground running this year, weighing in on no less than 300 bills impacting public safety and law enforcement. From immigration to marijuana and everything in between, 2017 is certainly shaping up to be one of our busiest years at the Capitol. This is in large part due to a recent rule change at the Capitol allowing legislators to introduce ten additional bills a year. The result? Over 2,700 bills introduced at the Capitol in one year.
If the increase in bills introduced this year wasn’ t enough to keep our team on the move, the increase in lobbying efforts by social justice and marijuana groups certainly is. In the past year alone, over 20 marijuana groups have acquired lobbyists at the Capitol. The ACLU continues to grow, seeing surges in donations following the 2016 election and new niche groups continue to pop up, fueled with a passion to“ resist” the Trump Administration, even if public safety suffers as a consequence. Elected officials, knowing this attitude polls well in their districts, have been quick to support legislation to limit law enforcement interactions with federal immigration authorities( SB 54) and federal drug enforcement authorities( AB 1578).
It’ s not all defense at the Capitol this year. Cal Chiefs is sponsoring four bills and supporting 72 that strengthen public safety and support the law enforcement profession. Included in this list are bills to restore DNA collection for Prop 47 offenses( AB 16, SB 781), tackle drug-impaired driving( AB 6, AB 64, SB 65, AB 903) and classify a number of“ serious felonies” as violent felonies in response to the passage of Proposition 57( AB 27, AB 67, SB 75, AB 197, SB 770).
We’ ve also continued our goal of working with nontraditional partners as well. In response to the rise in retail theft, the California Retailers, California Grocers and the United Food and Commercial Workers have all joined us to reinstate Section 666 of the California Penal Code, commonly referred to as petty with a prior. This section was deleted with the 2014 passage of Proposition 47. Their support reinforces our messaging that our priorities don’ t just impact law enforcement, but our entire communities.
In addition to monitoring and influencing the channels at the Capitol, our efforts in Sacramento are also focused on implementation of ballot initiatives and previous legislation. AB 953( 2015), requiring the collecting and remitting of all stop data, is particularly contentious. Draft regulations promulgated by the Department of Justice earlier this Spring included overly onerous reporting requirements. Together with our partners at the State Sheriff’ s Association and PORAC, we were able to unite and push back against original regulations that would have resulted in significant losses in officer time.
We have also been heavily involved in working to minimize the negative impacts of Proposition 57 and 64 by working with the Governor’ s office on regulations and necessary changes to statute. When each initiative’ s set of regulations becomes public, we will be weighing in during the public comment period as well.
It is critical that Chiefs continue to educate legislators on the impacts of the never ending“ reforms” to our criminal justice system, the legalization of marijuana, and recruitment challenges. Often, those with decision-making power at the Capitol lack reallife knowledge of the impacts of their legislation and rhetoric. I encourage everyone to connect with our legislative staff at the Capitol, attend legislative day, and meet with your legislators when they are in the district. After all of the chaos at the Capitol, a text from a police chief can change a legislator’ s mind on a bill. ■
10 California Police Chief | www. californiapolicechiefs. org