Senate Bill 2 (SB 2) (Bradford) was signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom on September 30, 2021. The legislation was widely viewed as the State of California’s single biggest police reform bill. This legislation and the resultant law changes become effective on January 1, 2023.
SB 2 primarily requires the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) to establish the Peace Officer Standards Accountability Division within the Commission to review serious misconduct investigations conducted by law enforcement agencies, conduct follow up investigation if necessary, and make findings on matters that may lead to grounds for suspension or revocation of an individual’s peace officer certification. SB 2 requires the creation of a nine-member Peace Officer Standards Accountability Advisory Board. Additionally, this bill requires California law enforcement agencies to provide POST with certain serious misconduct data from January 1, 2020, forward.
SB 2 also requires law enforcement agencies to submit all allegations that could lead to a law enforcement officer (LEO) suspension or decertification to POST within 10 days. All law enforcement agency internal investigative materials and actions related to the possible revocation of a person’s peace officer certification shall be made available to POST. POST will be required to receive, forward, and investigate misconduct complaints from the public. LEOs subject to suspension or decertification action must be served notice by POST. Should the individual subject to suspension/decertification contest the action, due process must initiate; to include review and recommendation by the Standards Accountability Advisory Board, review and decision by the POST Commission, and a final review and decision by an administrative law judge. Much of the data collected by POST must be made available to the public. All data leading to an individual’s peace officer revocation must be retained by POST for 30 years.
Section 15 (b), of SB 2 states: "By July 1, 2023, any agency employing peace officers shall report to the commission any events described in subdivision (a) that occurred between January 1, 2020, and January 1, 2023." POST will be required to develop processes that will facilitate the transfer of confidential information between agencies and POST, regarding individuals who have left an agency as termination/resignation or retirement in-lieu of/or arrests.
POST anticipates receiving several thousand records weekly consisting of misconduct allegations from both the public and law enforcement agencies, as well as lengthy internal investigation records and findings. All records shall be reviewed, forwarded, and tracked to ensure a thorough investigation. Additionally, POST will be required to issue a “Proof of Eligibility” (POE) certificate to individuals who qualify for peace officer appointment to agencies. This POE certification will be subject to suspension and revocation.
To effectively execute the mandates in SB 2, the transmission of data must be electronic. POST will require the development of an electronic platform to securely collect and transmit data between law enforcement agencies and POST. The electronic platform will need to be routinely modified, maintained, and ultimately possess the ability to interact with POST’s existing Electronic Data Interchange, the current internally developed database platform used by POST. Additional staffing will be required to process, review, and investigate serious misconduct information. Serious misconduct information which is contested by the individual subject to enforcement action must be professionally compiled in reports for review by the Standards Accountability Advisory Board, the POST Commission, and an administrative law judge, in that order.
As part of the preparation and implementation of SB 2, POST staff has held one-on-one consultations with agencies responsible for peace officer certification programs in the following states: Arizona; Massachusetts; New York; Nevada; Oregon; Tennessee; Utah; and Washington. While many states have some form of certification, revocation, or licensing components, no other state entity has the robust requirements placed upon POST by SB 2. The majority of states rely upon sustained allegations voluntarily forwarded to POST by individual law enforcement agencies, and most follow a paper-based transmission model. Other states rely exclusively on felony convictions for revocation, and some states rely on conviction information only when discovered in media or open-source reporting. A part of SB 2 requires POST to collect allegations of misconduct from the public, something no other state POST is currently mandated to perform. It is important to note that California has the greatest number of peace officers in the nation: approximately 90,000 peace officers which will fall under the provisions in SB 2. It should be noted that SB 2 also requires non-POST participating entities, 52 within California, the same reporting demands potential certificate revocation. |