At the September 2021 meeting, the Commission approved proposed changes to Commission Regulations 1953 (Peace Officer Background Investigation) and 1955 (Peace Officer Psychological Evaluation) (Attachment A), which incorporated a Bias Assessment Framework (Attachment A.1) into the psychological evaluation and background investigation and added Multicultural Competence (Attachment A.2) to the list of psychological evaluator competencies. These changes were proposed in response to the mandate of Assembly Bill 846 (AB 846), which became law effective January 1, 2021. The bill expanded Government Code Section 1031(f) requiring an evaluation of mental and emotional conditions to include that peace officers be found “free from any physical, emotional, or mental condition, including bias against race or ethnicity, gender, nationality, religion, disability, or sexual orientation, that might adversely affect the exercise of the powers of a peace officer.” The bill also added Section 1031.3 to the Government Code, which required POST to, by January 1, 2022, “study, review, and update … regulations and associated screening materials related to the emotional and mental condition evaluation required by Section 1031 to incorporate…the identification of explicit…(and)… implicit bias towards race or ethnicity, gender, nationality, religion, disability, or sexual orientation.” 

Subsequent to the September meeting, the regulations were submitted to the Office of Administrative Law (OAL) to begin the regulatory review process. During the 45-day public comment, POST received a letter from the Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory (RIPA) board offering suggestions for further addressing bias in peace officer screening, including recommendations for additional regulations (Attachment B). To allow time for POST to work with RIPA to address their recommendations, POST withdrew the proposed regulations from OAL to develop additional regulations to further clarify the bias assessment process. 

In early 2022, POST staff and members of the RIPA board worked together to develop additional language to address RIPA’s concerns regarding transparency in the bias screening process and additional avenues for gathering information on bias-relevant behaviors. In addition to and in support of the previously approved Bias Assessment Framework, the newly proposed language clarifies documentation requirements for the background investigation report and information the psychologist provides to the hiring department. The proposed regulations also add a requirement for departments to conduct social media checks as part of the background investigation of peace officer candidates. 

The proposed recommendations were subsequently sent for review to the stakeholders who provided input on the initial proposed regulations. These stakeholders included screening psychologists, background investigators and law enforcement representatives. The proposed regulations, including the initially approved language and the newly proposed recommendations are in Attachment A. The initial proposed regulations, which were approved by the Commission at the September 2021 meeting, are in single underline/strikeout and the new proposed additional regulations are in double underline/double strikeout and color-coded.

To address potential concerns with requiring departments to conduct social media checks, POST conducted a survey to determine how many departments are currently cybervetting their candidates (e.g., conducting social media checks). As noted in the survey (Attachment C), nearly 85% of the 206 respondents are currently conducting social media searches of their peace officer candidates. The survey results also provide information on how social media checks are being conducted, what information is sought and if departments currently have cybervetting policies. Acknowledging some of the comments on the survey, POST will work on developing guidance and training for background investigators, including a list of frequently asked questions (FAQs) for conducting social media searches.

Staff recommends that the Commission approve, subject to the Notice of Proposed Regulatory Action process, the proposed changes to Commission Regulations 1953 and 1955, which includes the previously approved incorporation of the Bias Assessment Framework, the requirement of Multicultural Competence for screening psychologists, and the recent addition of a social media search to the background investigation.