Amended  IN  Assembly  May 04, 2020

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2019–2020 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill
No. 2235

Introduced by Assembly Member Gabriel

February 13, 2020

An act to amend Section 18125 of the Penal Code, relating to gun violence restraining orders. An act to add Section 13015 to the Penal Code, relating to hate crimes.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 2235, as amended, Gabriel. Firearms: gun violence restraining orders. Hate crime data collection and outreach.
Existing law defines a “hate crime” as a criminal act committed, in whole or in part, because of actual or perceived characteristics of the victim, including, among other things, race, religion, disability, and sexual orientation. Existing law requires the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) to develop guidelines and a course of instruction and training for law enforcement officers addressing hate crimes. Existing law requires state law enforcement agencies to adopt a framework or other formal policy created by POST regarding hate crimes. Existing law also requires, subject to the availability of adequate funding, the Attorney General to direct local law enforcement agencies to report specified information relative to hate crimes to the Department of Justice.
This bill would require the department to carry out various duties relating to documenting and responding to hate crimes, including conducting reviews of all law enforcement agencies every 3 years to evaluate the accuracy of hate crime data provided and agencies’ hate crime policies, implementing a school-based program in conjunction with school districts and local law enforcement agencies aimed at educating students regarding how to report all suspected hate crimes to prevent future hate crimes, submitting specified hate crime reports to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for inclusion in the national crime repository for crime data, and sending advisory notices to law enforcement agencies when the department determines that hate crimes are being committed in multiple jurisdictions. The bill would also include a statement of legislative findings and declarations.

Existing law authorizes a peace officer to issue, if approved by a judicial officer, a temporary emergency gun violence restraining order on an ex parte basis that restrains a person that the officer reasonably believes poses an immediate danger to themselves or another by having a firearm, from possessing a firearm or ammunition.

This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to those provisions.

Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: NOYES   Local Program: NO  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 The Legislature finds and declares all the following:
(a) In 2018, the California State Auditor released a report entitled “Hate Crimes in California: Law Enforcement Has Not Adequately Identified, Reported, or Responded to Hate Crimes.”
(b) The California State Auditor found that despite an increase in hate crimes in California since 2014, law enforcement has not been doing enough to identify, report, and respond to these crimes.
(c) According the Attorney General, reported hate crimes in California have increased by 17.4 percent in California from 2016 to 2017, consistent with an escalation nationwide as documented by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the reported hate crime statistics for 2017.
(d) According to FBI data, in 2016, California law enforcement agencies reported more hate crimes nationwide than any other state, accounting for more than 15 percent of all reported hate crimes nationwide, despite making up only 12 percent of the United States population.
(e) Hate crimes are nonetheless underreported, and the actual number of victims and cases is generally unknown.
(f) The report found that, out of the four law enforcement agencies reviewed, three failed to properly identify some hate crimes. For example, for the years 2014 to 2016, inclusive, the Los Angeles Police Department and the San Francisco State University Police Department failed to correctly identify 11 of the 30 cases the California State Auditor reviewed as hate crimes.
(g) The four law enforcement agencies reviewed failed to report to the Department of Justice a total of 97 hate crimes – about 14 percent of hate crimes identified.
(h) The report noted that better proactive guidance and oversight by the Department of Justice will result in improved reporting of hate crime information.
(i) The Department of Justice’s current reporting process does not capture the geographic location where each hate crime occurred, but only reports the agency that reported the crime.
(j) Of the 245 law enforcement agencies the California State Auditor surveyed, more than 30 percent stated they do not use any methods to encourage the public to report hate crimes.
(k) The California State Auditor noted that the Department of Justice is “uniquely positioned to provide leadership for law enforcement agencies’ response to hate crimes” because of its statutory responsibilities to collect, analyze, and report on hate crimes.

SEC. 2.

 Section 13015 is added to the Penal Code, to read:

13015.
 The Department of Justice shall, in consultation with subject matter experts, including civil rights organizations, do the following:
(a) Maintain and annually update a list of all law enforcement agencies.
(b) Every three years, conduct reviews of all law enforcement agencies to evaluate the accuracy of hate crime data provided and agencies’ hate crime policies. During this review, the department shall obtain all of the following:
(1) Hate crime statistical data.
(2) Copies of the law enforcement agencies’ hate crime policies.
(3) Information regarding the agencies’ community outreach activities on hate crimes, including copies of the agencies’ hate crime brochures mandated pursuant to Section 422.92.
(c) Distribute information to all agencies on hate crime reporting procedures in cooperation with the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST).
(d) Periodically do outreach to all law enforcement agencies to increase awareness of the department’s Hate Crime Rapid Response Team, as necessary.
(e) Add region-specific data fields to the department hate crime database, as recommended by the California State Auditor in the 2018 report entitled “Hate Crimes in California: Law Enforcement Has Not Adequately Identified, Reported, or Responded to Hate Crimes.”
(f) Create and provide law enforcement agencies with outreach materials to better engage their communities, to provide updates on local trends relating to and statistics regarding hate crimes committed in their communities, and to provide updates regarding threats in the form of hate crimes in their communities. In complying with this paragraph, the department shall do all of the following:
(1) Provide all outreach materials in the Medi-Cal threshold languages.
(2) Provide guidance and best practices for law enforcement agencies to follow when conducting outreach to vulnerable communities about hate crimes within their jurisdictions. This should include collaboration with city and county human relations and human rights commissions.
(3) Include presentation materials specific to various types of communities historically vulnerable to hate crimes.
(4) Provide the materials described in this subdivision to POST for inclusion in its model policy framework developed pursuant to Section 13519.6.
(g) Implement a school-based program in conjunction with school districts and local law enforcement agencies aimed at educating students on the negative consequences of, and how to recognize, bias, prejudice, harassment, and violence and report all suspected hate crimes to prevent future hate crimes, as recommended by the report described in subdivision (e).
(h) Submit hate crime reports provided by local law enforcement agencies pursuant to Section 13023 to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for inclusion in the national crime repository for crime data collected for purposes of the Uniform Crime Reporting Program, as required by the Hate Crimes Statistics Act, pursuant to Section 534 of Title 28 of, and Section 41305 of Title 34 of, the United States Code.
(i) Analyze reported hate crimes in various regions of the state and send advisory notices to law enforcement agencies when the department determines that hate crimes are being committed in multiple jurisdictions.

SECTION 1.Section 18125 of the Penal Code is amended to read:
18125.

(a)A temporary emergency gun violence restraining order may be issued on an ex parte basis only if a law enforcement officer asserts, and a judicial officer finds, that there is reasonable cause to believe both of the following:

(1)The subject of the petition poses an immediate and present danger of causing personal injury to themselves or another by having custody or control of, or owning, purchasing, possessing, or receiving, a firearm or ammunition.

(2)A temporary emergency gun violence restraining order is necessary to prevent personal injury to the subject of the petition or another because less restrictive alternatives either have been tried and found to be ineffective, or have been determined to be inadequate or inappropriate for the circumstances of the subject of the petition.

(b)A temporary emergency gun violence restraining order issued pursuant to this chapter shall prohibit the subject of the petition from having custody or control of, or owning, purchasing, possessing, or receiving, or attempting to purchase or receive, a firearm or ammunition, and shall expire 21 days from the date the order is issued.