A bill in the California legislature would implement a policy that many civil rights advocates consider common sense — making deadly force a last resort.
Assembly Bill 931 (also known as the Police Accountability and Community Protection Act), introduced by state assembly members Shirley Weber (D-San Diego) and Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento), would require police officers to explore other alternatives to killing a suspect if those options are available to them, and the officer is not in the position of facing serious injury or death if they don’t use deadly force.
“Being a police officer is unquestionably a dangerous job that often requires split-second life-and-death decisions,” wrote Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California-Berkeley school of law, in an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times. “But too many have died and been seriously injured from unnecessary police use of deadly force.”
California has seen hundreds of deaths resulting from police officers shooting citizens over the last several years. In 2016 — the first year the Golden State publicly released data on police shootings — 157 people were killed, with the largest portion of those deaths happening in Los Angeles County. There were 782 additional incidents in which police used force that resulted in serious bodily injury or death, or in which they fired their service weapon, according to the Times.
Perhaps the most infamous police shooting this year was that of 22-year-old Stephon Clark, in Sacramento. Clark was in his grandmother’s backyard when officers fired 20 shots at him, with seven or eight of those bullets hitting him. At least three of the shots fired hit Clark in the back. Officers originally claimed Clark had a gun, but all he had in his hands at the time of his death was a cellphone.
The shooting spurred so much outrage in the community that local Black Lives Matter protesters interrupted the wedding of one of the officers who shot Clark.
“I just wonder if you started planning your wedding before you killed Stephon Clark or after? How have you been sleeping since March 18?” One protester was heard saying.
In a recent column for the Orange County Register, former police officer Jeff Noble wrote that Assembly Bill 931 is necessary to repair the rift between law enforcement and citizens.
“AB 931 is a reasonable step towards reducing unlawful shootings, improving accountability, and beginning the process of rebuilding trust between police and the communities they are meant to protect and serve,” Noble wrote. “I know firsthand that officers have a tough job, a job that requires making incredibly difficult decisions, often in the middle of the night and without time to review a manual or consult with a supervisor. AB 931 is an appropriate way to address those challenges.”
The California Peace Officers Association — one of the state’s biggest police unions — is opposing AB 931, calling on its members to push Senate Appropriations Committee chairman Anthony Portantino (D-La Cañada-Flintridge) to kill the bill.