To: all California police unions and agencies
Stop protecting bad cops! Drop your opposition to the police transparency bill!
Stop protecting bad cops and comply fully with California's new police transparency law, SB 1421. Drop any legal opposition to retroactively releasing police disciplinary records, and quickly honor public records requests at a reasonable cost to the public.
Why is this important?
California police unions are leading a fight to stop a landmark police transparency law from fully taking effect. If they win, the public will lose the right to know whether police officers have been accused of excessive force, sexual assault, and other official wrongdoing that took place before this year.
Until January 1, 2019, California police officers' disciplinary records were kept under lock and key. Journalists couldn't find out whether a police officer had a record of excessive force complaints. The public wasn't permitted to learn if the cops in their neighborhood had been accused of sexual assault on the job. Even attorneys defending their clients in court couldn't directly find out whether an officer had a record of lying on the stand or falsifying reports.
That all changed when Senate Bill 1421 took effect.
California's police unions are fighting to prevent SB 1421 from applying retroactively. In Los Angeles, San Francisco, and elsewhere, police unions have filed lawsuits to prevent disciplinary records from being released. Citing the police unions' efforts, the California Department of Justice has not honored public records requests from news organizations. Some police departments have even destroyed old records, preventing the public from ever accessing them. And some activists have reported exorbitant fees for disciplinary records requests meant to discourage requests.
Making disciplinary records publicly available helps us hold police officers accountable for bad behavior, hold police departments accountable for appropriate training and discipline, and hold city governments accountable for exercising appropriate oversight over police forces.
Police unions want to help their members avoid accountability when they act out of accordance with community standards, even at the cost of public safety and good relationships between police departments and the communities they serve.
This has to end. We call on California's police unions, police departments, and public officials to immediately begin fully complying with SB 1421. They must drop any legal opposition to retroactively releasing police disciplinary records, and quickly honor public records requests at a reasonable cost to the public.
Until January 1, 2019, California police officers' disciplinary records were kept under lock and key. Journalists couldn't find out whether a police officer had a record of excessive force complaints. The public wasn't permitted to learn if the cops in their neighborhood had been accused of sexual assault on the job. Even attorneys defending their clients in court couldn't directly find out whether an officer had a record of lying on the stand or falsifying reports.
That all changed when Senate Bill 1421 took effect.
California's police unions are fighting to prevent SB 1421 from applying retroactively. In Los Angeles, San Francisco, and elsewhere, police unions have filed lawsuits to prevent disciplinary records from being released. Citing the police unions' efforts, the California Department of Justice has not honored public records requests from news organizations. Some police departments have even destroyed old records, preventing the public from ever accessing them. And some activists have reported exorbitant fees for disciplinary records requests meant to discourage requests.
Making disciplinary records publicly available helps us hold police officers accountable for bad behavior, hold police departments accountable for appropriate training and discipline, and hold city governments accountable for exercising appropriate oversight over police forces.
Police unions want to help their members avoid accountability when they act out of accordance with community standards, even at the cost of public safety and good relationships between police departments and the communities they serve.
This has to end. We call on California's police unions, police departments, and public officials to immediately begin fully complying with SB 1421. They must drop any legal opposition to retroactively releasing police disciplinary records, and quickly honor public records requests at a reasonable cost to the public.