California’s Leading Law Enforcement Associations Announce New Legislation

California’s Leading Law Enforcement Associations Announce New Legislation to Improve Analysis of Bias in Policing 

All major California public safety organizations representing over 125,000 rank-and-file officers, highway patrolmen, chiefs of police, and sheriffs partner with Asm. Juan Alanis to amend the Racial & Identity Profiling Act 

Sacramento, CA – Today, Assemblymember Juan Alanis introduced A.B. 284, a bill that would amend the 2015 Racial and Identity Profiling Act to ensure that data collected and analyzed regarding law enforcement interactions is rigorously vetted, fair, and useful for improving policing practices. 

"I served as a peace officer for nearly 30 years, and in that time, I trained many officers in how to identify and eliminate bias on the job,” said Assemblymember Juan Alanis, who represents California’s 22nd Assembly District. “I have seen firsthand how time-consuming and onerous the RIPA reporting requirements are – if we are going to have the men and women who are protecting our streets take time out of their day to fill out these reports, we need to ensure that the data we’re collecting is useful and that its analysis can flow back to departments to create actionable change. This is why I introduced A.B. 284 – to make necessary shifts in how we’re evaluating bias in policing so that we can increase trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve.” 

The Racial Identity Profiling Act, otherwise known as RIPA, was passed in 2015 with the intent of determining where police bias may exist through the collection of information and observations from police contacts with the public. As currently implemented, RIPA mandates over 10 million stop data reports to be filed every single year. Each report must include the officer’s perceived view of a person’s race, gender, sexual identity, age, disability status, housing status, and more that is then sent to the California Department of Justice (DOJ), which analyzes the information and publishes an annual report. The Act also created the RIPA Board under the DOJ, which is comprised of a majority of civilians, to oversee and review the annual report, propose regulations, and make policy recommendations. Unfortunately, the current iteration of the RIPA Board does not allow for rigorous academic review of the data or opportunities for dissenting opinions or findings to be reflected in their final annual report. 

A.B. 284 would address the serious issues with RIPA’s current data collection and analysis process by: 

• Eliminating data collection of “non-discretionary stops,” or stops where an officer is called for service and has no choice but to respond. 
• Requiring the annual report to be thoroughly peer-reviewed so that it can effectively make meaningful and conclusive findings. 
• Allowing for official dissenting opinions to be presented in all future reports to ensure all voices on the RIPA Board are heard. 
• Requiring appropriate benchmarks for data analysis – currently, the RIPA Board’s annual reports compare local data against census population demographics for each city or county, which is not the same as the driving population which is highly variable due to commuter traffic. 
• Balancing the composition of the RIPA Board so that it adequately reflects the perspectives and concerns of the law enforcement officers who collect this data every day. 

A.B. 284 is sponsored by California’s leading law enforcement organizations, representing nearly all public safety employees – both rank-and-file officers and management – from across the state: 

"Our members, California rank-and-file officers, are the ones on the ground every day interacting with the public, which is why it's so important to us that RIPA data and analyses are accurate and rigorously vetted. PORAC has spent years trying to collaboratively improve how the RIPA Board is analyzing and addressing bias in policing – we want nothing more than to play an active role in this process. We all have the same goal: to eliminate bias in policing and ensure that peace officers can improve public safety for all Californians. But to do that, we need to be part of the solution.” – Brian R. Marvel, President of the Peace Officers Research Association of California (PORAC) 

"We are deeply committed to addressing bias in policing and we have consistently supported policies that would do so, like advanced training, background checks, transparency and disclosure requirements, and more. While the goals of RIPA align with these policies on paper, unfortunately, in practice, the current data collection and analysis process is burdensome, inaccurate, and unhelpful for improving outcomes. The law enforcement community has voiced these concerns with the RIPA Board time and time again but we have largely been ignored. We need to create an environment that is more balanced and encourages opinions from all sides. Only then can we create solutions that are productive and applicable to agencies across the state.” – Chief Jason Salazar, President of the California Police Chiefs Association 

"Since RIPA’s implementation, officers have spent millions of hours filling out stop data reports only for the data to be erroneously analyzed and subsequently used by the RIPA Board to make recommendations that do not improve outcomes in practice. If California is going to invest this much in both time and resources to collect and analyze over 10 million stops a year, we need to ensure that we are getting legitimate and actionable results. For a report of this magnitude that so clearly impacts legislation each year, it is critical that these reports be thoroughly peer-reviewed by more than just one single institution. We are proud to partner with Assemblymember Alanis to take the necessary steps to fix these glaring issues.” – Sheriff Don Barnes, President of the California State Sheriffs’ Association 

"Traffic stops are part of every patrol officer’s day, and we know firsthand that many of these interactions are non-discretionary – meaning that our officers are being called for service and have no choice but to respond. Unfortunately, the RIPA Board does not differentiate between these stops and discretionary traffic stops, which makes it impossible to accurately determine what decisions an officer is making based on their own bias. This is just one example of how the policies that come down from the RIPA Board are not aligned with how policing works on the ground. A.B. 284 would make much-needed adjustments to the data collection process that will both reduce cost and time requirements and move us closer towards our goal of eliminating bias in policing.” – Jake Johnson, President of the California Association of Highway Patrolmen 

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About the Peace Officers Research Association of California: 

The Peace Officers Research Association of California (PORAC) was incorporated in 1953 as a professional federation of local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies. PORAC represents over 82,000 public safety members and over 955 associations, making it the largest law enforcement organization in California and the largest statewide association in the nation. 

About the California Police Chiefs Association: 

Established in 1966, the California Police Chiefs Association represents municipal, school and transportation police chiefs and their agencies in California. Association members provide public safety for more than 30 million Californians. 

About the California State Sheriffs’ Association: 

The California State Sheriffs' Association (CSSA) is a nonprofit professional organization comprised of the 58 sheriffs along with thousands of law-abiding citizens throughout the state. The association was formed in 1894 for the purpose of giving California sheriffs a single effective voice. It was also formed for the purpose of sharing information and providing assistance to sheriffs and departmental personnel, thus enabling them to improve the delivery of law enforcement services to the citizens of this State. 

About the California Association of Highway Patrolmen: 

The California Association of Highway Patrolmen is a labor union that advocates on behalf of uniformed California Highway Patrol officers, including active officers at all ranks, retired CHP officers and survivors. 

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