State bills aim to increase access to police records, defer 911 calls

The author of a heavily-contested police transparency law introduced two new measures Monday, to expand that law and also require 911 calls about mental illness, drug overdoses and other incidents be directed to social service agencies instead of law enforcement.

Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, used an amendment process to get SB 773 and SB 776 into play relatively late in the legislative year.

SB 773 would create a new system for handling some 911 calls. SB 776 would build on SB 1421, Skinner’s 2018 bill that placed law enforcement personnel and discipline records under the scope of the California Public Records Act. That law survived numerous legal challenges, including several civil complaints that unsuccessfully sought to block its retroactive enforcement.

SB 1421 included numerous limits, such as files related to the significant use of force and complaints that had been sustained by an oversight agency. SB 776 would expand this access to “all records” relating to police use of force, dishonesty, sexual misconduct, anti-Semitism, other types of racism and gender bias unless they relate to complaints found to be frivolous.

SB 776 would limit agencies to charging only reasonable duplication fees in response to records requests and subject agencies that ignored requests to potential fines of $1,000 a day.

It would also mandate law enforcement agencies look into the prior records of applicants.

“Californians have the right to know who is patrolling our streets and who is given the authority to enforce our laws,” Skinner said in a press release. “We must not settle for officers who abuse authority in any way. With expanded public access to police misconduct, SB 776 sends a clear message that racist, discriminatory and abusive officers are not welcomed in our communities.”

“We are reviewing the announcement and look forward to additional engagement,” said Cory Salzillo, legislative director for the California State Sheriffs Association, in an email.

The debates around the two bills may play out far differently. Some in law enforcement have long called for many kinds of 911 calls to be routed to someone besides police, noting that most officers have not been well-trained in mental illness emergencies and some other types of situations in which they are routinely called.

But SB 776 is likely to face stiff opposition from law enforcement unions. During the debate over SB 1421, some said the bill failed to protect officers who had been subject to baseless complaints in the past, and would likely lead to many such complaints in the future.

The measures come well after the June 5 deadline for Senate bills to pass policy committees. But Skinner used the gut-and-amend process to delete the language from a pair of unrelated bills that had already passed over to the Assembly. Each bill will still need to pass both houses on a compressed time line.