Palo Alto Weekly
By Gennady Sheyner
After pledging last year to enact meaningful police reform only to fall well short of their goals, California state legislators are now advancing the most ambitious proposal on the table — a bill that would permanently strip badges from police officers found guilty of serious misconduct.
Known as Senate Bill 2, the legislation from Steven Bradford, D-Gardena, would create a process for decertifying police officers who commit crimes, thus ensuring that they would not be hired in another jurisdiction. Decisions on decertification would be based on recommendation by a new nine-member panel known as the Peace Officer Standards Accountability Advisory Board, which will include officers, academics, members of nonprofits and victims of police misconduct.
The movement to create a decertification process gained momentum last year, after the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer sparked national calls for police reforms...
While the bill's recent victories in Sacramento offer hope for advocates of police reform, the success of SB 2 will likely hinge on whether Bradford and other bill sponsors manage to make the needed compromises to retain Democratic support when the bill returns to the upper chamber. State Sen. Josh Becker, D-Menlo Park, who enthusiastically supported the bill during the May 26 hearing, said he is confident that this will happen.
"I believe we do need to continue to build greater detail around the facts that merit decertification and the extent of retroactivity," Becker said during the Senate hearing.