Bill to prevent law enforcement investigators after interviewing the families of those killed by the police before revealing their loved one’s death, the move failed when the Democratic-controlled state Senate refused to bring it to a vote before the legislative year ends Saturday.
Below Assembly Bill 3021Detectives and prosecutors investigating a police-related death would have been required to inform the deceased’s relatives that they had the right to know their loved one’s status, to remain silent, to retain an attorney and to know whether they were being recorded before answering questions.
Although the bill passed the Assembly in May, it failed to garner the minimum 21 votes required to pass the Senate, due to strong opposition from police and sheriffs’ organizations.
“Law enforcement still has a lot of influence in this building,” Rep. Ash Kalra (D-San Jose), the bill’s sponsor, said in a brief interview on Capitol Hill Saturday night.
“I don’t think they like to be told how to do business, but I think there are situations where they need to be told how to do business, and this is one of them,” he said.
Kalra said he hopes to try again next year.
The Los Angeles County Professional Peace Officers Association was one of several law enforcement groups that lobbied against the bill.
“Imposing rigid requirements on peace officers, prosecutors and investigators could ultimately hinder the pursuit of justice and undermine the effectiveness of law enforcement efforts,” the group wrote in a legislative analysis. “Requiring peace officers and prosecutors to disclose specific information before interviewing family members could compromise the confidentiality of ongoing investigations.”
The legislation followed a Los Angeles Times investigation and UC Berkeley’s investigative reporting program, which checked out 20 cases of detectives and prosecutors across California using death notices as opportunities to gather disparaging information about people killed or seriously injured by police.
During these interviews, investigators asked families about a loved one’s drug use, alcoholism, gang involvement and mental health problems, encouraging families to answer the questions before telling them of their loved one’s death.
When some families have filed lawsuits, authorities have often used information gleaned from these interviews to portray the deceased as mentally ill criminals or unfit parents while defending their agencies in court. In some cases, this has helped reduce the cost of damages or awards to families, the Times found.
The cases uncovered by the Times and the Investigative Reporting Program represent just a sample of a common practice, according to lawyers and advocacy groups that specialize in police misconduct.
Bruce Praet, co-founder of Lexipol, a company that trains and writes policy manuals for police departments, helped popularize the practice by teaching it to officers during one of his webinars. In a 2019 online training, Praet encouraged officers to reach out to the families of people killed by police “before the dust settles.”
Several national policing experts have condemned the practice. Since the Times published its findings, several other people have come forward to say they have also been victims of the tactic.
Following the publication of The Times and Reveal by the Center for Investigative Reporting stories Regarding Praet’s webinar, Lexipol distanced itself from its co-founder, apologized for Praet’s remarks, and committed to further reviewing the material presented in the training materials. In April, the investigation won a George Polk Awardone of the most prestigious distinctions in investigative journalism.
Members of the San Jose-based police accountability group Silicon Valley De-Bug, who partnered with Kalra to draft the bill after several of them realized they had been subjected to the practice, said they will continue to fight for a new version of the bill.
“I am disappointed that grieving families mean so little to the California Senate,” said Sharon Watkins, whose son, Phillip Watkins, was fatally shot by San Jose police officers in 2015.
“The ability to restore community-police relations will not be possible without this bill.”
California Politics editor Laurel Rosenhall contributed to this report.
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