CHP struggles to hire + DOJ struggles with nonbinary tag + ACLU names legislative champions
Good morning and welcome to the A.M. Alert!
CHP IS STRUGGLING TO RECRUIT NEW OFFICERS
The California Highway Patrol is struggling to fill vacancies, and so is asking for $2 million in annual funding over three years to help fill out their ranks.
Recruitment of law enforcement personnel has been on the decline for more than seven years, according to a budget document submitted by the agency, and agencies are forced to compete for candidates in the same diminishing pool.
“As vacancy numbers increase due to the inability to fill positions and as more officers continue to become eligible for retirement, existing officers are becoming overworked and burned out. At a time when the importance of officer mental wellness is more widely recognized, powerful efforts to recruit, hire, and retain officers become increasingly important. Law enforcement agencies need to thoughtfully amend recruitment and hiring practices without lowering the standards for officers that their peers and communities have come to expect,” according to the budget document. “This combined with the recent increase in demand for workers after the release of the COVID lockdowns in the private sector has made recruitment even more difficult. Most law enforcement agencies including the CHP are facing a significant deficit, and existing officers are forced to work overtime to maintain the same level of services to the public.”
The CHP in 2019 began utilizing an all-digital recruitment campaign “with outstanding results:” there were 899 CHP applications in December 2019, and 1,576 applications received in June 2020, according to the budget document.
With prices going up, CHP says more money is needed to maintain its recruitment effort.
NONBINARY TAG CAUSES CHALLENGES FOR DOJ
SB 179, by Sen. Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, was signed into law in October of 2017. At the time, the bill — which allows nonbinary people to be denoted on their driver’s license with an X where it says gender — did not have any known fiscal impact for the California Department of Justice. Now, nearly five years later, the DOJ is having second thoughts.
The agency is asking for $1.1 million in state funds to begin to create a system that will allow the DOJ to successfully interface with the California Department of Motor Vehicles when it comes to processing identifications for nonbinary people.
“There are several risks to the public and state if the DOJ is not approved funding to implement the changes to the impacted CJIS systems that interface directly with DMV and Law Enforcement Agencies. Without being able to capture and exchange accurate gender designation data could pose safety risks to the public and law suits to the state and Law Enforcement Agencies,” according to a budget document submitted by the DOJ.
ACLU NAMES ITS LEGISLATIVE CHAMPIONS
Eight California lawmakers have earned the title of “Champion” in ACLU California Action’s new legislative scorecard.
They include Sens. Steven Bradford, D-Gardena; Sydney Kamlager, D-Los Angeles; Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley and Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco on the Senate side and Assemblymembers David Chiu, D-San Francisco; Alex Lee, D-San Jose; Ash Kalra, D-San Jose; and Mark Stone, D-Scotts Valley on the Assembly side.
“When legislators choose to stand with communities who’ve been denied justice, ACLU voters will stand with them,” said Carlos Marquez, executive director of ACLU California Action, in a statement. “Because of the fearless leadership of our champions and support from our advocates, abusive police officers can finally be decertified and California is one step closer to ensuring racial justice for all and ending discriminatory loitering laws that target our most vulnerable trans women and women of color. As the new legislative session starts, we are focused on enlisting a growing number of legislators in the fight for justice.”
To determine their ranking, ACLU scored 113 bills in the Assembly and 114 bills in the Senate.
“ACLU California Action analyzes and monitors hundreds of legislative proposals each year across a wide variety of issues. We evaluate the impact on civil liberties and civil rights, and alert members of the legislature in advance when we support or oppose a bill, both in writing and by providing testimony in committee hearings,” the group said in a statement.
You can see the scorecard for yourself, and see how your lawmakers did, by visiting here.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“If I’ve lost you, you’re paying attention. If I haven’t lost you, you’re not paying attention.”
- Gov. Gavin Newsom, at a recent transportation press conference.
Best of the Bee:
Six Flags and Facebook are among the private companies that donated to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s coronavirus response efforts in 2021, continuing an explosion in philanthropic giving to California governmental efforts that began in 2020, via Sophia Bollag.
This story was originally published January 18, 2022 at 4:55 AM.