Bills on police privacy (AB2299) and journalists’ access to inmates (AB1270) came up for legislative committee action last week.
FAC and other fans of government transparency saw a ray of sunshine when AB 2299 stalled in the state Senate amid concerns that it would be abused.
The bill, authored by Assemblyman Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles) offered a unique expansion of privacy rights by allowing law enforcement, judges, prosecutors, public defenders and correctional officers to redact their names, addresses and property descriptions from property records.
Today the Los Angeles Times reported on the genesis of the bill and the opposition it faced.
Assemblyman Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles) introduced the bill after someone anonymously posted the home addresses of more than a dozen LAPD command officers on the Internet last year.
Santa Clara County Assessor Lawrence E. Stone was among several public officials in the state that opposed the measure saying it would be “cost prohibitive to implement and a nightmare to administer.”
The California Newspaper Publisher’s Association (CNPA) opposed the bill and garnered support from dozens of newspaper editorials speaking out against the AB2299.
On Friday they reported the outcome in their Legislative Bulletin
Despite a compelling and impassioned appeal by the author to protect public safety officers from threats and attacks, the Senate Governance and Finance Committee on Wednesday decided to hold a bill that would have shrouded California’s property record system in secrecy.
The Chairwoman of the committee, Senator Lois Wolk (D-Davis), said the bill was too broad and unworkable. She said she was concerned about the blanket nature of the bill “without any showing that property records have ever been used to threaten or harm a police officer.”
Senator Doug LaMalfa (R-Chico) expressed concerns about the bill slowing down real estate transactions saying, “There are just too many potential unintended consequences that this bill does not address.”
Dozens of newspapers editorialized in opposition to AB 2299, which helped focus the legislators on the significant negative impact the bill would have on every Californian.
The CNPA Legislative Bulletin also reported that last week AB1270, a bill to restore journalists’ access to prison inmates for face-to-face interviews, passed the Senate Public Safety Committee by a vote of 4-2.
AB 1270, by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), is supported by CNPA, the ACLU and the California Correctional Peace Officers Association. At the hearing, however, there were so many people that came to testify in support of AB 1270 that it took 20 minutes for all of them to state their name and register their support of the bill.
AB 1270 will next be heard by the Senate Appropriations Committee on June 25. Read more about the bill in the Legislative Bulletin.