Child welfare: investigations: video and audio recording.

Existing law requires the state, through the Department of Social Services and county welfare departments, to establish and support a public system of statewide child welfare services to be available in each county of the state. All counties are required to establish and maintain specialized organizational entities within the county welfare department that have the sole responsibility for the operation of the child welfare services program. The Legislature has declared its intent, in providing for this statewide system of child welfare services, that all children are entitled to be safe and free from abuse and neglect. This bill, to be known as Sammy's Law, would require a county child protective services social worker, assigned to a role that involves assuming the custody of children or conducting interviews of children or their parents in order to investigate allegations of parental abuse or neglect, to use a video and audio recorder to make recordings of his or her interactions with the children and their parents in carrying out that role. In order for the recording requirement to apply, the child or parent is required to give his or her consent to being recorded. The bill would require the county child protective services employing the social worker to catalog and preserve the video and audio recordings, as provided. This bill would require the prosecutor, in a criminal proceeding, to produce a copy of the above described recordings upon the request of the defendant, and if the recordings are not produced, the defendant would be entitled to an instruction stating that the missing information is presumed to be exculpatory. The bill also would require the county, in a dependency proceeding, to produce a copy of the above described recordings upon the request of the parent, and if the recordings are not produced, the county child protective services social worker would be prohibited from testifying about the missing information, and the judge would be prohibited from considering the missing information in making his or her rulings. Because this bill would require local entities to provide a higher level of service through making and producing video and audio recordings, it 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 these statutory provisions.