A bill to stop police investigators to question the families of people killed by the police before revealing that her loved one is dead failed when the Democratic-controlled state Senate refused to put it to a vote before the legislative year ended on Saturday.
Low Assembly Bill 3021Detectives and prosecutors investigating a police-involved death would have had to tell relatives of the deceased that they have the right to know the condition of their loved one, to remain silent, to hire an attorney and to know whether they are being recorded before answering questions.
While the bill passed the Assembly in May, it failed to secure the minimum 21 votes needed to pass the Senate amid strong opposition from police and sheriffs' organizations.
“Law enforcement still has a lot of influence in this building,” Assemblyman Ash Kalra (D-San Jose), the bill’s author, said in a brief interview at the Capitol on Saturday night.
“I don't think they like being told how to run their business, but I think there are situations where they need to be told how to run their business, and this is one of them,” he said.
Kalra said he hoped to try again next year.
The Los Angeles County Professional Peace Officers Association was one of many 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 compromise 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 the Investigative Journalism Program at the University of California, Berkeley, which investigated 20 cases of detectives and prosecutors across California using death notices as opportunities to gather derogatory information about people killed or seriously injured by police.
During these interviews, researchers questioned families about a family member's drug use, alcoholism, gang involvement, and mental health issues, and encouraged families to answer the questions before telling them their loved one had died.
When some of the families later filed lawsuits, authorities often used information from those interviews to portray the deceased as mentally ill criminals or irresponsible parents while defending their agencies in court. In some cases, that helped reduce the cost of damages or settlements paid to the families, The Times found.
The cases uncovered by The Times and the Investigative Reporting Program represent just a sample of a routine practice, according to lawyers and advocacy groups specializing 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 in 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 police experts have condemned the practice. Since The Times published its findings, several more people have said they have experienced the tactic as well.
Following the publication of The Times and Reveal by the Center for Investigation Reporting stories In connection with Praet's webinar, Lexipol distanced itself from its co-founder, apologized for Praet's comments, and promised to further review the materials presented in the training materials. In April, the investigation won a George Polk Awardone of the most prestigious honors in investigative journalism.
Members of the San Jose-based police accountability group Silicon Valley De-Bug, which partnered with Kalra to draft the bill after several realized they had been subjected to the practice, said they would continue to fight for a new version of the bill.
“I'm disappointed that grieving families mean so little to the California Senate,” said Sharon Watkins, whose son, Phillip Watkins, was shot and killed by San Jose police officers in 2015.
“The possibility of healing relations between the community and the police will not be possible without this bill.”
California politics editor Laurel Rosenhall contributed to this report.
