Is cop transparency headed to a California voting booth?

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Thursday June 23, 2016 · 4:31 PM PDT

2016/06/23 · 16:31

KQED-San Francisco is reporting that efforts to increase transparency and accountability in California’s police departments may be heading to the voting booth. All it took was a little bit of sex between an underage teen and a bunch of police officers from several jurisdictions.

Democratic State Sen. Mark Leno of San Francisco, sponsor of SB 1286 which sought to give the public access to the misconduct and disciplinary files of police officers, appears to be mulling over the idea of taking the issue directly to California’s voters since the bill died in committee without a hearing last month.

“It’s quite possible it cannot be done legislatively, that the power of the law enforcement lobby is so intense that it’s not going to move successfully through the Legislature,” Leno said in an interview. “The only way we may have to change these secrecy laws would be to go to the ballot.”

…

He could try to put his proposal before voters in 2018 to coincide with the next governor’s race. … Because Leno will soon be termed out of office, he will not be able to reintroduce the legislation.

Leno’s bill was opposed by cop unions and their supporters. No surprise there, but check out what a representative of the Police Officers Research Association said about this latest idea, according to KQED:

“Several law enforcement lobbying organizations opposed his bill. Leaders of the Peace Officers Research Association, a labor group representing police officers, said the proposal would harm public safety and allow criminals to publicly attack the reputation of good police officers.”

The quest for transparency and accountability, kicked into overdrive thanks to Black Lives Matter, has spawned a number of reactionary claims, most notably the “Ferguson Effect”—cops are supposedly afraid to do their jobs now that the eyes of the world are watching them. Or rather, they are afraid their activities will be misconstrued and they’ll get in trouble for a perceived wrongdoing.

The other reactionary claim is that this latest effort at accountability has weakened respect for law enforcement, and now everybody wants to kill cops. Both are lies but here’s the thing: With all this going on, the main thing the Peace Officers Research Association is concerned about is “criminals” ruining a good cop’s “reputation.”

Their reputations? Really?

Kudos to Mark Leno for putting forth the legislation in the first place, recognizing the power of California’s cop lobby, and—hopefully—coming up with an end run around it.

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Is cop transparency headed to a California voting booth?

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