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California Governor Signs Racial Profiling Bill

Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation Saturday intended to reduce racial profiling by police officers.

By Joaquin Palomino

Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation Saturday intended to reduce racial profiling by police officers.

The bill, introduced by Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, D-San Diego, requires law enforcement agencies, including the California Highway Patrol, to track the race and ethnicity of those stopped by police, along with the reason for the stop and its outcome. The largest police departments will have to start reporting in April 2019 and the smallest by April 2023.

The information will be analyzed by an advisory board established by the state attorney general, which will use the data to try to weed out incidents of racial profiling.

Almost every state has proposed some measure to deal with racial profiling since the fatal shooting last year of unarmed teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., the Associated Press reported.

Some Bay Area police departments, including San Francisco's and Oakland's, already track stop data.

Brown signed a dozen other bills designed to strengthen the criminal justice system, many by Bay Area lawmakers.

Among them were a pair of bills by state Sen. Jim Beall, D-San Jose, requiring police officers to receive more training in dealing with mentally disturbed persons.

"SB 11 and 29 increase the amount of specialized training officers will receive, better equipping them to help people with mental illnesses and avoid injuries," Beall said in a statement. "These bills are essential in a day and age where officers are now the first responders for incidents involving untreated mental illness."

But the governor vetoed nine bills that would have created new crimes or allowed penalties for a variety of acts -- including flying drones over prisons and jails or using bullhooks or other similar devices designed to inflict pain on elephants.

"Over the last several decades, California's criminal code has grown to more than 5,000 separate provisions, covering almost every conceivable form of human misbehavior," Brown wrote in his veto message. "Before we keep going down this road, I think we should pause and reflect on how our system of criminal justice could be made more human, more just and more cost-effective."

(c)2015 the San Francisco Chronicle

Caroline Cournoyer is GOVERNING's senior web editor.
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