Peace officers: marital privilege.

Existing law provides that a spouse has a privilege during the marital relationship and afterwards to refuse to disclose, and to prevent another from disclosing, a communication if the spouse claims the privilege and the communication was made in confidence between the spouses while they were husband and wife. A married person also has a privilege not to testify against his or her spouse in any proceeding and, when the spouse is a party to a proceeding, a privilege not to be called as a witness by an adverse party to that proceeding without the prior express consent of the spouse having the privilege. The Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights Act provides various rights and protections to peace officers, including the procedure for interrogation of peace officers who are under investigation. This bill would provide that a peace officer who asserts any of the marital privileges described above shall not be subject to administrative discipline for failure to report information to his or her supervisor or department, except when the information concerns criminal or certain other conduct of the peace officer's spouse, who is also a peace officer employed by the department, and other specified conditions apply. The bill would provide that this provision would only apply to administrative disciplinary investigations and hearings, and not to other civil or criminal proceedings.