Law Enforcement Misconduct

The bill requires a law enforcement agency (agency) that receives an allegation of misconduct, criminal conduct, or other unprofessional conduct regarding a peace officer employed by the agency to investigate the allegation. If a peace officer receives an allegation of misconduct, criminal conduct, or other unprofessional conduct (misconduct) or is reasonably aware of the misconduct of another peace officer, the peace officer shall report the allegation to the subject of the allegation's employing agency. A peace officer who fails to make the report commits a class 2 misdemeanor. A person who makes an allegation has a private right of action if the allegation is not investigated. The bill clarifies that patterns and practices investigations may also be related to deprivation of rights by a peace officer against another peace officer. Current law requires agencies to report certain information regarding officers' misconduct to a database maintained by the P.O.S.T. board. The attorney general may audit the reports made to the database to verify reporting compliance. The bill requires the attorney general to accept reports of non-reporting to the database and requires those reports to be investigated within available resources. Current law requires unedited video and audio recordings of incidents of alleged misconduct to be released the public upon request. The bill states that a law enforcement agency shall not charge a fee to the requestor related to releasing the recording. Current law provides a peace officer with whistle-blower protection. The bill allows a peace officer who is subject to whistle-blower discipline a private right of action against the officer's employing agency. The bill requires each agency to retain all reports regarding allegations of misconduct and all investigation files, notes, and reports related to those reports. The bill also requires the investigating agency to provide a copy of the investigation file to the subject of the investigation after the investigation is completed. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)