Article Source: CA State Senator Jerry Hill
Senator Jerry Hill Calls for Officers to be Held Accountable for Failing to Secure Guns They Leave In Cars
Police Firearms Stolen from Unattended Vehicles 3 Times in Less Than 2 Months Despite State Law Requiring Safe, Secure Storage of Handguns Left in Vehicles
SAN MATEO – Prompted by yet another rash of thefts of officers’ guns left in vehicles, State Senator Jerry Hill called today for law enforcement officers and their departments to ensure that guns be stowed safely, securely and out of sight, if it is necessary to leave them in an unattended car. He also urged that maximum penalties be leveled against officers who fail to follow state law and their department’s rules on gun storage.
“Every day, California police officers, sheriff’s deputies and investigators from law enforcement’s many branches see firsthand how lives are lost and how families are shattered by gun violence,” said Senator Hill, D-San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties. “It is impossible to urge too strongly that these sworn officers of the law use common sense and care when it comes to the handling and storage of their own firearms. We hold our law enforcement officers to the highest standards because we expect them to embody our finest qualities and we entrust our safety to them.”
“Today I call for every law enforcement officer in California to step up, to make sure that they and their colleagues uphold our state law and their department’s rules on safe, secure gun handling and storage. And I urge that officers who fail to follow the law or department policy be held accountable and face the maximum penalties possible,” said Senator Hill, who added he will explore ways to increase compliance and tighten the law. “These alarming, persistent thefts have involved only a fraction of the thousands of sworn officers in our state, but it is clear that it will take every law enforcement officer in California, the leadership of their departments and prosecutors working together to end what has become a seemingly unceasing – and, if truth be told, embarrassing – pattern. These thefts are preventable and the tragedies that all-too-often ensue are preventable.”
Four guns belonging to law enforcement officers have been stolen from vehicles in the Bay Area in less than seven weeks, and one of the weapons was used to kill a 23-year-old San Franciscan three days after it was stolen:
· Two handguns were stolen Monday, September 25, from the vehicle of Taft (Kern County) police officer, who was off duty but had been in the Bay Area on business and left the weapons in a parked SUV while going to a diner in Oakland. The vehicle did not bear a police department logo but had plates marked “CA Exempt,” a designation for government vehicles.
· On September 17, the gun of San Francisco sheriff’s deputy was stolen from the trunk of a rental car parked in city’s Potrero Hill neighborhood. The deputy, a recent hire, was fired for violating department rules to keep the weapon in a lockbox that is affixed to the vehicle and is out of view.
· On August 15, a block from his home in San Francisco’s Mission District,Abel Enrique Esquivel Jr. was gunned down with a weapon stolen three days earlier from the vehicle of a San Francisco Department police veteran.
Senator Hill has led efforts in the Legislature to address police storage and oversight of guns.
Following a series of law enforcement gun thefts, soon after which two of the stolen weapons were used to kill 32-year-old Kate Steinle in July 2015 in San Francisco and murder 27-year-old muralist Antonio Ramos in September 2015 in Oakland, Senator Hill authored Senate Bill 869 to require that law enforcement officers take the same precautions as civilians when handguns are left unattended in vehicles. Police had been exempt from such requirements.
Under SB 869, which Governor Brown signed in 2016 and took effect this year, law enforcement officers and anyone else leaving a handgun in an unattended must lock the handgun in a vehicle’s trunk, lock the handgun in a locked container out of view, or lock the handgun in a locked container that is permanently affixed to the vehicle and cannot readily be seen. A violation is punishable by an infraction with a fine up to $1,000.
Earlier this year, Senator Hill introduced SB 22, which would have required law enforcement agencies to keep better track of their guns. In addition to the firearm theft from vehicles, law enforcement agencies lost track of hundreds of guns, investigative news reports found, largely due to the fact that most departments do not have processes in place to keep tabs on all their weapons. SB 22 would have fixed this problem, but the legislation was held by the Senate Appropriations Committee. Senator Hill plans to pursue legislation again next year.
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Robert Riechel
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Photo Credit: San Bruno CA Patch Archives
Source Credit: CA State Senator Jerry Hill
