Killea’s Bill on Confidential Police Hearings Is Sidetracked

A controversial bill by Sen. Lucy Killea (D-San Diego) to make sure police personnel files are kept confidential during civil service hearings was sidetracked and essentially killed Tuesday by an Assembly committee.

The Assembly’s Public Service Committee refused to pass the measure and instead consigned it to an interim hearing to be held after the legislative session adjourns Aug. 31. That procedural move guarantees that the measure will not pass the Legislature this year, sending Killea back to square one in her attempt to guard the confidentiality of the police records.

“This issue will not go away,” Killea said Tuesday after the hearing. “The public is increasingly concerned about the actions of peace officers and has a right to know whether their law enforcement agencies respond appropriately to allegations of misconduct by an officer.

“However, the enthusiasm to discover misconduct must be tempered with the respect of an individual’s right to privacy and safety,” said Killea.

Killea’s measure would make the police personnel records available to civilian review boards but seal them for civil service hearings, a provision that drew opposition from newspapers, the American Civil Liberties Union and the city of San Diego, which conducts its civil service hearings in public.

The groups claimed that Killea’s bill was an attempt to restrict the public’s right to know about police personnel problems.

However, Killea said her measure would require police departments to report statistics about police discipline and allow the personnel records to become public in civil or criminal court cases. The measure, she added, was designed to prevent newspapers from obtaining charges and testimony against police officers through what she claimed was the back door of civil service proceedings.