Police Accountability Bill Stalled – It's Time for Speaker Nunez to Speak Up

July 6, 2007 by Mark Schlosberg & Kate Kennedy, California Progress Report

The significant and unwarranted force used by officers of the Los Angeles Police Department on May 1, 2007 at MacArthur Park has been widely reported. Demonstrators and members of the media were subjected to baton strikes and rubber bullet shots as police broke up a largely peaceful immigration rally. Unfortunately, the public will never learn which officers committed misconduct and what discipline, if any, they received because of the August 2006 California Supreme Court decision in Copley Press v. Superior Court.

Senator Gloria Romero’s (D-Los Angeles) SB 1019, which would overturn that decision and restore public access to police misconduct records, is stuck in committee. Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles) has made no effort to move the bill, and his leadership is needed in the face of strong police union pressure.

For the last 30 years, jurisdictions throughout the state have created processes for holding public hearings regarding police complaints and discipline. Openness and transparency are essential for building trust in a department and promoting police-community relations, especially for communities of color, immigrant communities and the LGBT community, all of which have historically born the brunt of police misconduct.

While SB 1019 allows the disclosure of certain police misconduct records, it also recognizes the diversity of jurisdictions and allows cities and counties to come up with their own processes for disclosing information. In response to concerns raised by the police unions, the bill includes safeguards to protect officers when revealing their identities would put their safety at risk. In these ways, SB 1019 effectively balances the need of the public to know the identity of offending officers and the extent to which they were disciplined with the safety of police officers.

But while the debate about SB 1019 has had little to do with facts or policy, it has had everything to do with politics and political pressure. The police unions have gone all out in their effort to defeat the measure.

Prior to their vote on the bill, Senator Gloria Romero revealed on the floor of the senate an e-mail from a representative of a couple police unions threatening to torpedo term limit reform if the measure passed. A bipartisan group of senators lead by Senators Romero and Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks) stood up to the threat and the bill passed.

At the Assembly public safety committee meeting last week, pressure was further escalated. Over 100 police union representatives repeated the mantra that SB1019 endangers officers and their families, essentially telling the committee that if they voted for SB 1019, they would be branded as anti-law enforcement.

While no one on the committee questioned the assertion that SB 1019 would endanger police officers, a Los Angeles Times investigation revealed that no facts or evidence support it. The same police association representatives and lawyers who testified at the committee were unable to identify a single concrete example of a police officer being physically harmed in the last 30 years because of open disciplinary records. In this context, it is disturbing that Jose Solorio (D-Santa Ana), chair of the public safety committee has thus far refused to reschedule a requested rehearing on SB 1019, effectively stalling the bill.

More significant, has been the failure of Speaker Nunez to speak out on this issue. Shortly after the May Day melee, Speaker Nunez demanded accountability saying, “To say we are outraged is an understatement. We want those responsible in the highest levels of the LAPD to pay consequences.” Yet, when presented the opportunity to promote accountability, he has failed to take action that would allow him and the public to learn, whether, in fact, those responsible were held accountable.

Thus far, Speaker Nunez has not supported SB 1019, has failed to speak out and publicly advocate for the bill, and has even failed to fill a key vacancy on the public safety committee – a seat that was previously held by Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), a strong supporter and co-author of SB 1019.

As the May 1 melee reminds us, while the vast majority of police do an admirable job, when misconduct does occur, it sparks intense community concern and suspicion. Openness and transparency around such misconduct investigations is critical for public trust in the police. Speaker Nunez can help promote such trust by publicly supporting SB 1019 and making every effort to move the bill from the committee to the floor.

Mark Schlosberg is the American Civil Liberties Union Northern California (ACLU-NC) Police Practices Policy Director. Kate Kennedy is an ACLU-NC Police Practices Intern on SB 1019.