By Shane LaVigne, Capitol Advocacy
Last week, the Legislature returned from Spring Recess. Now, legislators are confronted with an especially busy next few weeks as numerous committee hearings must take place before upcoming deadlines. Coming up on April 26 is the deadline for policy committees to hear bills and report to fiscal committees introduced in their house. A week after that, May 3, marks the deadline for policy committees to hear non-fiscal bills that were introduced in their house, and report them to the Floor.
Below are updates on the legislative priorities we are following for CSLEA:
Legislative Update
AB 1794 (McCarty) Crimes – Recently Introduced
This bill, which currently does not have substantive language, will eventually be the bill to target repeat offenders of retail crime and individuals charged with repetitive drug offenses, re-evaluate public safety accountability measures, and modify Proposition 47. We will engage with the author, and new Chair of the Assembly Public Safety Committee, on this measure as it moves forward.
AB 1839 (Alanis) Peace officers: education and hiring grants – Support
This bill would establish the Law Enforcement Officer Grant Program to provide grants for individuals enrolled in a modern policing degree program at a California community college who commit to work as peace officers at a law enforcement agency for four years. The bill would also award grants to significantly understaffed local law enforcement agencies to provide hiring bonuses to newly employed peace officers. On March 12, the bill was heard in the Assembly Higher Education Committee and overwhelmingly passed out of committee. Next, the bill will be heard in the Assembly Public Safety Committee.
AB 1941 (Quirk-Silva) Local public employee organizations – Support
This bill would authorize a recognized employee organization to charge an employee covered by the Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights Act for the reasonable cost of representation when the employee holds a conscientious objection or declines membership in the organization and requests individual representation in a discipline, grievance, arbitration, or hearing from the organization. The bill is currently being heard on the Assembly Floor.
AB 2042 (Jackson) Police canines: standards and training – Oppose
This bill is a reintroduction of AB 742 (Jackson) from 2023’s legislative session that aims to address the use of canines in policing. The bill would require the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training to develop standards and training guidelines for the use of canines by law enforcement. This bill will be an ongoing issue we anticipate will be settled this session.
AB 2421 (Low) Employer-employee relations: confidential communications – Support
This bill would prohibit a local public agency employer, a state employer, a public-school employer, a higher education employer, or the district from questioning any employee or employee representative regarding communications made in confidence between an employee and an employee representative in connection with representation relating to any matters within the scope of the recognized employee organization’s representation. This bill is currently in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
AB 2872 (Calderon) Department of Insurance: sworn members: compensation – Support if Amended
This bill would require that sworn members of the Department of Insurance who are rank-and-file members of State Bargaining Unit 7 be paid the same compensation as the corresponding rank-and-file sworn peace officer employees of the Department of Justice. While we are always supportive of efforts to enhance the pay and benefits of Unit 7 classifications, we are not supportive of the bill’s efforts to tie compensation between classifications via a parity requirement. We would be supportive of this bill if the following language was amended into it: “the state shall pay sworn members of the Department of Insurance who are rank-and-file members of State Bargaining Unit 7 the equivalence of sworn agents at the Department of Justice.” This bill is currently being heard in the Assembly Public Employment & Retirement Committee.
AB 3241 (Pacheco) Law enforcement: police canines – Support
This bill would require the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) to adopt minimum standards and to certify courses of training for all law enforcement canine handlers, and those law enforcement supervisors directly overseeing canine programs. The bill would require each law enforcement agency, by or before July 1, 2025, to maintain a policy for the use of canines by the agency that, at a minimum, complies with the guidelines adopted by POST, and would require law enforcement agencies to establish a training regimen that includes POST-certified course. This bill has been referred to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
SB 905 (Wiener) Unlawful entry of a vehicle – Support
This bill would make forcibly entering a vehicle with the intent to commit a theft therein a crime punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for a period of up to three years. This bill has been referred to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
SCR 110 (Umberg) California Peace Officers’ Memorial Day – Support
This measure would designate Monday, May 6, 2024, as California Peace Officers’ Memorial Day. This resolution is currently on the Senate Floor.
