SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California is one of only four states that does not have a decertification process in place for bad cops. But that could change at any minute with Senate Bill 2 sitting on Governor Gavin Newsom's desk.
The bill creates an advisory board, made up of mostly civilians, that will make recommendations to the state’s Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training. That commission will have the power to strip an officer of their badge.
Senator Steve Bradford co-authored SB2.
"It's a method of getting rid of bad officers," Bradford said. "We all know there are bad teachers, there are bad doctors, bad lawyers. We have to believe that there are bad police officers, and right now, we can't do that here in California."
Bradford said an officer can quit or get fired and simply head over to another department.
"This is a way to build public trust and restore confidence in the community that law enforcement will be held accountable for those criminal acts that they commit on civilians," he said.
Because of the seriousness of that, critics of the bill said not enough is being done to make sure the process is fair. Brian Marvel is the president of the Peace Officers Research Association in California.
"We agree that there needed to be a licensure program," he said, "and to be quite honest, I'm surprised that there hasn't been one, considering that how progressive California is in regards to public safety."
His acknowledgment does not come without concerns. He said his big issue is with the makeup of the advisory board. It will have seven civilians and two law enforcement officers.
"I think if you look at other licensure programs throughout California, in the nation, you'd never find an advisory board where seven of the nine people are predisposed to be biased against the peace officer coming before them to determine whether they get... to keep their job and their livelihood," he said.
Senator Bradford dismissed the concern all together.
"That's just foo-foo dust, you know, the boogey man," Bradford said. "There's no bias here."
"We trust 12 individuals on a daily basis to sit in a jury box and render a decision on someone's fate," he added. "Why can't we trust nine individuals, two of whom are law enforcement, to assess the situation?"
Because of Marvel’s input, he said an amendment was added that requires the civilians to undergo 40 hours of law enforcement training. Something he is happy with, but also says that he will continue to monitor the process.
"We will continue to work with the POST (Peace Officer Standards and Training) commission and our elected leaders to make sure that we can have a fair and equitable program moving forward," Marvel said.
Newsom has not signed Bradford’s bill yet, but Bradford said he hopes something like this is adopted on the national level because an officer stripped of their badge in California could just go to another state.
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