Editorial: Newsom’s sleazy move to roll back police accountability

When it comes to police reform, Gov. Gavin Newsom is an opportunistic hypocrite.

In 2021, the governor with much fanfare signed laws expanding access in California to records of police abuse and establishing a long-overdue process to investigate cops and revoke their certification.

Now the governor is trying to slip through without public review changes that would roll back key transparency elements of that legislation he approved less than two years ago.

State legislators should not enable this deceit. They should reject Newsom’s attempt to weaken law enforcement accountability just as it’s becoming apparent how widespread police abuse is in California.

For example, we’ve learned of rampant racism in the Antioch Police Department, a lack of punishment for San Jose cops who inflicted serious injuries on civilians, and excessive and often reckless use of police dogs in Richmond. Meanwhile, more than 80 law enforcement officers working in California were convicted criminals with rap sheets that include everything from animal cruelty to manslaughter.

For decades, police in California enjoyed wide-reaching protections against disclosure of misbehavior, and there was no statewide system for ousting bad cops. An officer fired from one department could easily go to work for another.

That began to change in 2018 when state lawmakers approved Senate Bill 1421, by state Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, that started prying open the door on police records. The law required release of documents pertaining to cops’ discharge of firearms, use of major force, sexual assault and dishonesty.

Then, in 2021, standing alongside families of victims of police abuse, Newsom signed two key bills to further the cause of police accountability.

Sen. Skinner’s SB 16 expanded the types of records police agencies must disclose to include documents covering unreasonable force, racist or biased behavior, and unlawful searches or arrests.

SB 2, by Sen. Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, and Steven Bradford, D-Gardena, empowered the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training to investigate and revoke or suspend certifications for police. California finally joined most other states that have certification processes to curb bad cops from jumping from one department to the next.

Key to all of this is transparency about police misconduct and discipline — something that had been historically absent in California. It would provide a way for concerned citizens and the press to obtain documents without having to sue local agencies. They also ensure that the commission’s work reviewing discipline cases is transparent.

Now Newsom wants to throw that out. In the name of cost-cutting, the governor proposes eliminating the disclosure requirements for the state commission. Talk about penny-wise and pound-foolish. The cost to Californians to settle litigation because of bad cops’ behavior and the criminal cases now being thrown out because of police dishonesty dwarf the purported state savings.

Newsom’s changes would force someone seeking information about an officer to struggle, and potentially litigate, with each local agency where the cop worked. And the changes could lower a veil over the state commission’s police review process, keeping from the public key documents used in disciplinary procedures.

Making matters worse, Newsom is trying to bypass normal procedure for lawmaking.

Rather than include the changes in a bill that undergoes the regular legislative review, he has included them in a budget “trailer bill.” It’s an abhorrent process in which unpopular changes to state law are wrapped into the budget approval under the guise of a financial nexus.

Legislators and the governor are currently haggling over the budget for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1. But the administration already has scores of trailer bills, including the rollback of SB 2, prepared to slam through the Legislature.

In other words, Newsom wants to use a secretive process to enable more police secrecy. It doesn’t get much sleazier than that.

Written by the Bay Area News Group editorial board.