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State Attorney General Calls for a Way to Ban Problem Cops, Other Police Reforms

While most other states license peace officers and can revoke that certification, California does not certify officers at the state level.
Marisa Lagos
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, pictured in 2019, announced his support for a series of potential police reforms on Monday. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

California's attorney general threw his weight behind a long list of police reforms Monday, saying legislation is needed to create a system that would prevent bad cops from staying on the force.

Attorney General Xavier Becerra said he will support legislation to create some sort of certification system for police officers — so that officers who commit serious misconduct can be decertified, instead of being hired by another police agency. While most other states license peace officers and can revoke that certification, California does not certify officers at the state level.

Becerra also said he will support legislation that sets out clear, statewide crowd control standards, bans using pepper spray against kids in juvenile facilities and reexamines the use of police with people experiencing homelessness and mental illness.

"We are being forced to confront the realities of systemic inequalities and racism in our nation and in our state, on top of the ongoing pain caused by the unprecedented pandemic, COVID-19," Becerra said. "People from across the nation have bravely spoken up to demand change. It will take sustained work by all."

He added, "Our actions and reforms have to be meaningful."

But nothing Becerra set out will be implemented immediately, at least not beyond the agency he oversees, the state Department of Justice. In fact, many of the policies Becerra endorsed are simply recommendations he is urging individual law enforcement agencies around California to implement. They include:

  • requiring police to intervene if another officer uses excessive force
  • requiring police to use deescalation techniques and verbal warnings before force is used
  • banning chokeholds and carotid restraints
  • using deadly force only as a last result
  • creating guidance on proportionality
  • prohibiting shooting from a moving vehicle, unless there's an imminent threat to human life
  • comprehensive reporting when force is used
  • banning "bite and hold" canine techniques.

Becerra noted that under a law set to take effect in January, police departments will be required to update use-of-force rules to include much of the above. He urged them not to wait until then to implement those policies — and said many departments are already contemplating rolling them out sooner than next year.

"Let's see if we can accelerate that," he said. "Let's see if we can show people that we can start doing this work without having to be required."

But John Crew, a retired ACLU attorney who spent decades on police reform efforts in California, said he was disappointed by Becerra's decision to push what he called "voluntary" reforms instead of using the power he has as attorney general to investigate and force law enforcement agencies to change.

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"These are all things that have been on the table for a long time — and people understand that voluntary reform doesn't work," he said. "What's newsworthy is what's not here."

Becerra on Monday noted several voluntary reform efforts his office has undertaken, as well as stronger pattern and practice investigations underway into the Kern County Sheriff's Office and Bakersfield Police Department. He did not undertake that stronger intervention in Vallejo, where the attorney general's office is undertaking a voluntary "review and reform" effort.

Crew said he would like to see Becerra distance himself from police unions, in part by refusing to take political donations from those groups. Those unions are generally the biggest hurdle to passing legislation that could lead to real police reform, Crew said.

San Jose, San Francisco and Los Angeles police unions made their own call for reforms Sunday, including suggesting the creation of a national database of officers fired for serious misconduct, to prevent them from being hired elsewhere.

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