California Police Reform Bill To Get Rid Of ‘Bad Apples’ Advances To Governor

California is one of the few U.S. states without a way to strip bad officers of their badges. The Kenneth Ross Jr. Police Decertification Act will change that.

On Wednesday, California law­mak­ers moved for­ward leg­is­la­tion that can cause law enforce­ment offi­cers to lose their badges. The leg­is­la­tion is await­ing a sig­na­ture from Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has favored police reform in the past.

According to the Associated Press, the Kenneth Ross Jr. Police Decertification Act, a bill orig­i­nal­ly intro­duced a year ago by Democratic state Sen. Steven Bradford, aims to stop offi­cers from sim­ply chang­ing depart­ments after being found guilty of mis­con­duct. The bill will cre­ate a new cer­ti­fi­ca­tion that can be per­ma­nent­ly revoked by an 18-mem­ber coun­cil called the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training.

Among the seri­ous mis­con­duct issues that the bill names are “using exces­sive force, sex­u­al assault, intim­i­dat­ing wit­ness­es, mak­ing a false arrest or report, or par­tic­i­pat­ing in a law enforce­ment gang. Other grounds include “demon­strat­ing bias” based on race, reli­gion, gen­der iden­ti­ty, sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion or men­tal dis­abil­i­ty, among oth­er cri­te­ria,” AP reports.
Read the full sto­ry here: https://​www​.the​root​.com/​c​a​l​i​f​o​r​n​i​a​-​p​o​l​i​c​e​-​r​e​f​o​r​m​-​b​i​l​l​-​t​o​-​g​e​t​-​r​i​d​-​o​f​-​b​a​d​-​a​p​p​l​e​s​-​1​8​4​7​6​4​3​410.

Bradford named the bill after 25-year-old Kenneth Ross, a Black man killed by an offi­cer in Los Angeles County back in 2018. According to AP, the offi­cer was cleared of wrong­do­ing in Ross’ case but was pre­vi­ous­ly involved in three oth­er shootings.