By Bob Walsh
Two years ago Gavin Newsom, the God-Emperor of the
formerly great state of California, signed a bill that, among other
things, allowed POST (Commission on Peace Officer Standards and
Training) to investigate complaints of peace officer misconduct. The
law also allows POST to decertify peace officers, which would make them
unemployable as peace officers. At the time he thought this was
wonderful beyond description. He is now walking away from it.
Theoretically
this is because he wants to save the money. The state is looking at a
$31.5 billion deficit. The issue is transparency. Transparency can be
expensive. The new change would move to onus of providing records onto
the local jurisdictions, who are often slow and difficult about coughing
up records on allegedly abusive cops. The state would be much more
obliging once they got the records from the locals.
Nobody
seems to be able to say just how much this proposed change would
actually save. Many people believe that it is more appropriate to do
this thru the legislative process rather than the budget process.
POST
estimates it will handle as many as 3,500 decert cases per year,
roughly 4% of the total peace officers in the state. The commission has
taken action so far this year against 44 officers, including suspension
of credentials or outright decertification. They have requested a $6
million bump to cover the case load.
It
is (IMHO) not complete clear to me whether Newsom is backing away due
to some sort of political reason or if the real reason is money.
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