Newsom approves decertification system for rogue cops

(CN) — California Governor Gavin Newsom inked a broad package of criminal justice reforms Thursday, highlighted by a decertification process for officers who wrongly kill or use excessive force against civilians.

The feature legislation, Senate Bill 2, aligns California with nearly every other state and creates an official process to strip badges from rogue officers. The new law also reduces immunity provisions for officers to make it easier for victims of police violence to pursue wrongful death and other civil rights claims in state court.

Currently, California is one of four states along with Hawaii, New Jersey and Rhode Island without official processes to revoke the certificates of disreputable officers.

Newsom said the fact California is one of the last with a statewide decertification process proves how difficult it is to enact police reforms in the nation’s most populous state.

“Forty-six other states have established foundational laws to address [decertification]; why is it so hard to do the right thing?,” Newsom asked during a ceremony attended by the family members of two California men recently killed by police. “It remains still hard to do the right thing.”

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