It just made sense.
Victory!
And not a little surprising since Governor Brown once said it would take an "act of God" for him to sign AB 953 – which may be the most progressive statewide racial profiling reform legislation in the US. Especially given the strength of the law enforcement lobbies in California.
Today, Governor Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 953: The Racial and Identity Profiling Act of 2015 into California law. Written by Assemblymember Shirley Weber’s (D-San Diego), AB 953 now requires law enforcement agencies to collect basic information on police stops in response to growing concerns about racial profiling and police misconduct.
“I am grateful to the governor - who along with his father has been on the forefront of civil rights issues for the last half century - for his careful consideration and for his support for this bill,” Weber said. “AB 953 will be the state’s first step toward not only understanding the problem of racial profiling, but also toward formulating policies to reduce the practice and its devastating consequences. California is going in a new direction on this issue; hopefully, this will set an example for other states."
The Courage Campaign, ACLU and others mounted an excellent pressure campaign to get the reticent Brown to sign on. I know I called his office daily, and found the number busy every time.
AB 953 will:
* Update California’s definition of racial and identity profiling to be in line with federal recommendations by including other demographic characteristics, such as gender and sexual orientation.
* Require that California law enforcement agencies uniformly collect and report data on stops, frisks, and other interactions with the communities they serve.
* Establish an advisory board to analyze stop data and develop recommendations to address problems with disparate policing where they exist.
Moreover, the Governor didn't stop there:
AB 953 would go one step further than other similar laws, like one adopted in Connecticut, to include both traffic and pedestrian stops. Governor Brown also signed into law another data collection bill, Assembly Bill 71, to gather information about police use of force.
Hearty clap to California progress!!!