author: Low
co-authors: Gipson, Bigelow, Cooper, Lackey, Santiago, Wilk
AB 1428 was advertised by law enforcement as an attempt to increase transparency in police misconduct cases, but racial justice groups opposed it because it would undermine true reform and may have actually limited access to certain information. One of the biggest problems in the bill was a voluntary mediation program it would create to resolve complaints of police bias and would require participants to sign a confidentiality agreement. The mediation program would be run entirely by law enforcement who would be responsible for selecting which complaints qualify for mediation. The criminal and racial justice communities had to spend significant time and energy in order to take out the mediation program and stop this bill — resources that otherwise would have been spent advocating for legislation to improve our criminal justice system. Legislators who support meaningful action to expose and stop police brutality were forced into a very difficult situation about how to vote on a bill advertised as addressing “police transparency” that was, in truth, designed to obscure police misconduct. (This bill was placed on the suspense file.)