Bills

AB 173: School safety: peace officer interactions with pupils and nonpupils.

  • Session Year: 2017-2018
  • House: Assembly
  • Latest Version Date: 2017-04-25
Version:

Existing law, the Interagency School Safety Demonstration Act of 1985, requires school districts and county offices of education to be responsible for the overall development of comprehensive school safety plans for its schools operating kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive. The act establishes the School/Law Enforcement Partnership, comprised of the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the Attorney General, whose duties include, among others, the development of programs and policies necessary to implement the provisions of the Education Code relating to school safety plans.

This bill would require the governing board of a school district to adopt policies mandating proper protection of pupils rights in interactions with peace officers, including, but not limited to, that school staff not call a peace officer to arrest, discipline, or otherwise interact with a pupil for a violation of school rules and that school staff exhaust all alternatives before involving a peace officer for low-level misconduct. The bill would require a school district to collect and publicly report comprehensive data regarding peace officer interactions with pupils and to have a procedure through which pupils and community members can complain about misconduct relating to peace officer interactions with pupils. By imposing additional duties on school districts, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would impose specified requirements on a peace officer, including, but not limited to, that when deployed to a school campus to question or arrest a pupil, the peace officer immediately notify the principal, identify himself or herself, show proper credentials, and provide the legal authority for his or her actions. The bill would prohibit, unless certain conditions are met, a peace officer from questioning or arresting a pupil on a school campus during school hours absent a real and immediate physical threat to pupils, teachers, or public safety. By imposing additional duties on local law enforcement agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

Existing law authorizes the governing board of a school district to establish a school police department under the supervision of a school chief of police and to employ peace officers.

This bill would, for purposes of its provisions, exclude from the definition of peace officer a person employed as a member of a police department of a school district and a peace officer employed by a K12 public school district.

Existing law, the Racial and Identity Profiling Act of 2015, requires, among other things, each state and local agency that employs peace officers to annually report to the Attorney General data on all stops, as defined, conducted by the agencys peace officers for the preceding calendar year. Existing law requires the reporting to include specified information for each stop, including the time, date, and location of the stop; the reason for the stop; the perceived race or ethnicity, gender, and approximate age of the person stopped, provided that the identification of these characteristics be based on the observation and perception of the peace officer making the stop, and the information not be requested from the person stopped; and specified actions taken by the peace officer during the stop.

This bill would require, on and after January 1, 2019, the governing board of a school district that establishes a school police department, that contracts with or employs peace officers, or that permits a law enforcement agency to assign peace officers or school resource officers to a schoolsite to require the applicable law enforcement agency to report, on a monthly basis, information similar to that reported under the Racial and Identity Profiling Act of 2015 on all stops, as defined, made at a schoolsite. The bill would require the reports to include additional information relating to the law enforcement agencys interactions with pupils and nonpupils, as specified. The bill would require the collection and reporting of data pursuant to the bill to be undertaken in accordance with the Racial and Identity Profiling Act of 2015 and its implementing regulations. The bill would require the governing board of a school district to forward the monthly report to the Attorney General within 30 days of receipt and to present an annual report based on the monthly reports from the prior academic year during an open session of a regularly scheduled public meeting of the governing board of the school district. By imposing additional duties on school districts and local law enforcement agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.

Authors shown for version:
Amended Assembly (4/25/2017)