What are the political currents that led to Governor Newsom attempting to roll back access to California’s public records law pertaining to law enforcement misconduct?
ACLU California Action Director of Government Affairs Carmen-Nicole Cox speaks out against the proposed change. Photo by KCRA.
What Newsom was attempting to do, as discussed in good coverage here by KCRA, was to attach a budget trailer bill that would exempt the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) from provisions of the CPRA that pertain to disclosure of records of misconduct. The actual text of the trailer bill is here (hat tip to the Mercury News for actually posting a link). The text is the following:
ADD GOVERNMENT CODE SECTION 7923.601
This division does not require the disclosure of peace officer personnel files, and background investigation files gathered by law enforcement agencies pursuant to Government Code section 1031, in the custody of the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training in connection with the commission's authority to verify eligibility for the issuance of certification and investigate grounds for decertification of a peace officer pursuant to Penal Code section 13510.8, including any and all investigative files and records relating to complaints of, and investigations of, police misconduct, and all other investigative files and materials. Nothing in this paragraph shall limit the obligation of another public agency to disclose records of police misconduct, or other public records, pursuant to Penal Code section 832.7 or any other provision of law.
In some ways, this language seems limited (in the sense that, for example, it seemingly leaves intact many of the CPRA provisions that require disclosure of records of misconduct), and in other ways it’s obviously not. Does this language mean that if personnel records from a local agency — like a county sheriff’s department, for example — are “in the custody of the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training,” they are then shielded from disclosure? The last sentence might suggest the answer is “no,” but undoubtedly law enforcement agencies would argue “yes.”
More broadly, why would this language be consistent with the Legislature’s intent in enacting SB 2, SB 1421, and AB 748, all of which sought precisely to expand access to records of misconduct? Why is a higher degree of secrecy around officers who commit misconduct necessary, or reasonable, or anything that California voters should want?
Backing up for a second: what the heck is going on? Newsom is generally pretty reasonable on policing issues and California was way overdue for reform around public access to records related to law enforcement misconduct. Why on Earth would he be pushing to roll back that progress? Who is he listening to? As critics note in the coverage linked above, the fact that he was using this budget trailer process to try to get this change through is worrisome, because it strongly looks like an attempt to legislate under the radar.
The report about the proposed transparency tweak comes on the heels of another one suggesting — in my opinion, without any empirical basis — that the decertification provision of SB2 could produce “staggering” losses in law enforcement (nonpaywall summary here). It’s hard to know the specifics of what’s playing out here, but reading between the lines a little bit there strongly appears to be a lobbying effort going on to undercut SB2. Bottom line, this is also an effort to keep bad law enforcement officers from being exposed as such, and that is not something that any reasonable politician should support.
I have reached out to Newsom’s office in connection with this post and will update if I get any response.
Related Post: LA Times Endorses SB2, Aug. 7, 2021
Related Post: Retired LAPD Sergeant Dorsey: Pass SB2, July 13, 2021