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California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced the final regulations to implement AB 953, the Racial and Identity Profiling Act (RIPA) of 2015.

Law enforcement agencies will start collecting and reporting stop data to the California DOJ on July 1, 2018.

In a statement, the Attorney General said, “Public safety is a job for all of us - our peace officers, of course, but a cooperative citizenry as well. Trust is the glue that makes the relationship between law enforcement and the community work.”

On the other hand, Chief Edward Medrano said RIPA and the recently approved regulations are additional tools for officers. It will help them ensure that they “continue to provide fair and impartial policing to the communities they serve.” Medrano serves as co-chair of RIPA Board and co-director of People Improving Communities through Organizing (PICO) CA.

RIPA requires law enforcement agencies to start collecting and reporting data on complaints regarding accusations of racial or identity profiling.

In addition, the law also required them to gather and report the alleged type of profiling. They must report whether the alleged profiling was based on actual or perceived race, ethnicity, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, etc.

The law also mandates the creation of the RIPA Board, which will be responsible for eliminating racial and identity profiling.  The Board will also be in charge of improving law enforcement’s sensitivity towards diversity and racial identity.

Stakeholders submit input during the rule-making process

On Thursday, the AG Becerra’s Office said the California Justice (DOJ) drafted the regulations to implement RIPA. The agency published the proposed regulation in December last year for comments from stakeholders. During the initial 45-day comment period, the agency received hundreds of comments. Based on the comments, the DOJ revised the draft regulation.

In August 2017, AG Becerra posted the revised proposed regulations and opened a 15-day public comment period for stakeholders. The Attorney General received inputs from the RIPA Board, state and local enforcement agencies and associations, civil rights groups, the LGBTQ, immigrant, disability, and youth rights communities, and other organizations.

Final regulations to implement Racial and Identity Profiling Act

Under the final regulations to implement RIPA, law enforcement officers must collect and transmit the following information to the DOJ:

• Date, time, duration, location and type of stop
• Reason for the stop
• Any actions taken by an officer during the stop
• Result of the stop
• The officer’s perception of the gender, race/nationality, and approximate age of the person stopped, and whether the officer perceives that the person is lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender
• Whether the person stopped has limited or no English fluency
• The officer’s perception or knowledge that the person has a disability