AB 2498

Bill Subjects

Abstract

The California Public Records Act requires state and local agencies to make public records available for inspection by the public, subject to specified criteria and with specified exceptions. Existing law exempts from disclosure any investigatory or security file compiled by any other state or local police agency, or any investigatory or security files compiled by any other state or local agency for correctional, law enforcement, or licensing purposes. Existing law requires, however, that state and local law enforcement agencies make public specified information, including names of victims, relating to the circumstances surrounding all complaints or requests for assistance, among other things, except to the extent that disclosure of a particular item of information would endanger the safety of a person involved in the investigation. Existing law allows victims of specified crimes, including human trafficking, to request that their names be withheld from any public records request, and upon that request prohibits law enforcement agencies from disclosing those names except under specified circumstances. Existing law additionally prohibits law enforcement agencies from disclosing the addresses of victims of specified crimes, including human trafficking. This bill would authorize, at the request of a victim and subject to specified restrictions, the withholding of the names and images of a victim of human trafficking and that victim's immediate family, as defined and as specified, from disclosure pursuant to the California Public Records Act until the investigation or any subsequent prosecution is complete. The bill would additionally prohibit law enforcement agencies from disclosing the names, addresses, and images of victims of human trafficking and their immediate family, except under specified circumstances. The bill would also require law enforcement agencies to orally inform the person who alleges to be the victim of human trafficking of his or her right to have his or her name, addresses, and images, and the names, addresses, and images of his or her immediate family members withheld and kept confidential. By imposing new duties on law enforcement agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law, as amended by the Californians Against Sexual Exploitation Act (CASE Act) , an initiative measure enacted by the approval of Proposition 35 at the November 6, 2012, statewide general election proscribes the crime of human trafficking. A person who deprives or violates the personal liberty of another with the intent to obtain forced labor or services, or to effect or maintain a violation of various felony or misdemeanor offenses, including offenses relating to prostitution, child pornography, as specified, or extortion, as defined, is guilty of human trafficking. A person who causes, induces, or persuades, or attempts to cause, induce, or persuade, a person who is a minor at the time of commission of the offense to engage in a commercial sex act, with the intent to effect or maintain a violation of various felony or misdemeanor offenses, is also guilty of human trafficking. Existing law proscribes various sex offenses, including pimping and pandering. Existing law makes a person who procures another person for the purposes of prostitution, or who by promises, threats, violence, or by any device or scheme, causes, induces, persuades, or encourages another person to become a prostitute guilty of pandering. Existing law makes a person who, knowing another person is a prostitute, lives or derives support or maintenance in whole or in part from the earnings or proceeds of the person's prostitution, or from money loaned or advanced to or charged against that person by any keeper, manager, or inmate of a house or other place where prostitution is practiced or allowed, or who solicits or receives compensation for soliciting for the person guilty of pimping. Existing law generally requires that the issues on the court calendar be disposed of in a specified order, unless for good cause the court directs an action to be tried out of its order. Existing law requires that certain criminal actions, however, take precedence over all other criminal actions in the order of trial, including criminal actions in which a person is a victim of an alleged violation of a specified sex offense, including rape, incest, or sodomy, committed by the use of force, violence, or the threat of force or violence. This bill would authorize the court, for good cause, to grant priority to an action for an alleged violation of the prohibition against human trafficking as the court, in its discretion, may determine to be appropriate. This bill would also make other technical, nonsubstantive, and conforming changes. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect regarding the need to maintain the confidential names of victims of human trafficking and their families. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these statutory provisions.