LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
Kate Wallace, CALSAGA Association Manager
As we reported to you earlier this year, Assemblymember Chris Holden introduced Assembly Bill 229 which would require the development of Use of Force curriculum for the private security industry. Among other topics the training would include active shooter situations; implicit and explicit bias and cultural competency; mental health and policies.
The CALSAGA Executive Committee along with our lobbyist Kelly Jensen have been working with Assemblymember Holden’s office, the Committee Consultant for the Senate Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee and Chief Andres of the Bureau of Security & Investigative Services on the text and ramifications of the bill. CALSAGA President David Chandler has testified before Assembly and Senate committees regarding the bill.
The current draft of the bill would remove Weapons of Mass Destruction from Powers to Arrest and replace it with Use of Force. Weapons of Mass Destruction will become an elective option. It would require the initial guard card training to be administered in a traditional classroom setting with a physical instructor utilizing “hands-on training.” Originally the legislation would have increased the initial training requirement from 8 hours to 10 hours. CALSAGA addressed this with Assemblymember Holden and are glad to report that he is agreeable to keeping the initial training as an 8 hour course.
Proposed legislation would also increase requirements for reporting altercations. Currently all physical interactions involving a security officer must be reported to the BSIS. If passed, this legislation would require that any altercation be reported to the BSIS. This would include verbal altercations and unwanted touches such as common instances of gently touching an individual’s shoulder to guide them out of a building, officers restraining someone in a hospital setting, etc.
Last Tuesday David Chandler testified before the Senate Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee in opposition to the bill as currently written. There are portions of the legislation to which the association objects particularly the barrier to employment created by the increased training requirements and the lack of provisions for administering training in the event of a future pandemic.
During committee session this week, Assemblymember Holden stated, “I have committed to CALSAGA that I will work with them to find an appropriate balance between traditional classroom and their suggestion of web-based platform training.”
CALSAGA will continue to keep you updated regarding AB 229. Should this legislation pass, new requirements would not take effect until 2022.