Yesterday, the Assembly Public Safety Committee, save Asm. Mark Leno, overwhelmingly voted down SB 1019, Sen. Gloria Romero’s measure to make police misconduct records public.  Here is the logic direct from the police union:

Tim Sands, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, told the committee that the court ruling recognizes that the city and the Police Department have evolved since the old access rules were enacted decades ago.

“They (the state Supreme Court) realized there was no Internet 30 years ago,” Sands said. “There weren’t Web sites where you could get massive amounts of information on individuals.” (SD U-T 6/25/08)

So, it was ok to make the information public when it was, in fact, inaccessible, but now that it is accessible, it can’t be public.  Strange logic there. Information is power these days, and privacy is an important matter.  So, we are viewing competing interests here: the privacy of police officers versus the trust and reputation of those same police officers.

Solorio, for his part, promised to find some “middle ground”, but Romero, and Leno in a previous bill, have worked extensively to try to bring some sunshine to the police departments of the state.  SB 1019 was approved by a bipartisan majority in the Senate, and represented the “middle ground.” SB 1019 allowed for the protection of privacy when necessary.

Here’s hoping that some sort of legislation can get passed soon.