By CAROLINA MENDEZ |

PUBLISHED: May 19, 2021 at 8:00 a.m. | UPDATED: May 19, 2021 at 8:01 a.m.

With conviction of a felony being one of the only ways to permanently take an officer’s badge, cops charged with crimes like domestic battery often plead down to a lesser crime and continue in their position. At worst, officers can resign or be fired, only to be rehired at another police department in another city.

The Kenneth Ross Jr. Police Decertification Act of 2021 (Senate Bill 2) introduced by state Sen. Steven Bradford, D-Gardena, seeks to remedy this failure in our system of accountability. The bill does this by first establishing a fair and uniform statewide process, with due process safeguards, to decertify officers who engage in serious misconduct.

Additionally, SB 2 would  strengthen civil rights protection by restoring the Tom Bane Act, which is unequivocally one of California’s most important civil rights laws. SB 2 would make it easier to bring civil rights lawsuits against the police in state court, thereby promoting an additional layer of accountability while deterring bad behavior.

For these reasons, a version of SB 2 that restores the Bane Act, as currently proposed, would be a critical turning point for police accountability in California.

But good policy isn’t in the interest of the police lobby. Just like last year – and every instance when California has considered substantial measures to hold officers accountable for misconduct – police departments and their unions have steadfastly opposed even the most modest of reforms. SB 2 is no different. That includes the Santa Ana Police Officers’ Association and Santa Ana Police Chief David Valentin, both of whom called into the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on April 27th to voice their opposition to the bill.

In their opposition, the police lobby has found a champion in Sen. Tom Umberg of Orange County’s 34th Senate District, which includes Santa Ana and Anaheim – two cities in which police misconduct and use of deadly force toward Black and Latino communities have been pressing issues for decades.

But not only did Sen. Umberg abstain during the Judiciary Committee’s vote on SB 2, a decision that nearly sunk the bill before it could even reach a floor vote, but he’s also been a key actor working to weaken SB 2’s civil rights provisions.

Umberg has opposed restoring the Bane Act to its original standard of  “general intent” as it existed before 2017 – when just the act of violating a person’s civil rights was enough to run afoul of the law,  as opposed to today’s standard of “specific intent,” which forces individuals to prove an officer meant to violate constitutional rights through their actions.

This was the case in the run up to the Judiciary Committee hearing, and it has been the case ever since as SB 2 continues to make its way to the Senate floor where all state senators will have to go on record about their support – or lack thereof – for what should be a common-sense reform.

It’s a prospect that’s made other moderate Democrats in Sacramento uneasy. These are legislators who have long maintained cozy relationships with police unions and their political action committees, but who at least recognize their constituents’ growing outcry to reign in officers that commit abuse and stop the crises of police violence toward Black people and other communities of color.

It’s undeniable that other moderate Democrats in Sacramento are looking to Sen. Umberg for direction – some in good faith and others for an excuse to torpedo a common-sense reform that takes officers who commit misconduct off our neighborhood streets and makes sure they are held accountable when they violate civil rights.

There are lives at stake, and we cannot wait any longer. If Sen. Umberg is as committed to change as he says he is, it’s time he used his influence and the trust he maintains among more moderate members of the Democratic caucus to create the political space for a much needed reform that will finally enable our communities to hold officers accountable in California when they engage in serious misconduct.

At minimum, he must get out of the way and drop his efforts to undermine an important piece of policy.

Carolina Mendez is a member of Chispa and serves as the Orange County Regional Director of the California College Democrats.