Senators Wiener & Pérez Bills To Prohibit Local, State & Federal Law Enforcement From Covering Their Faces & Require Stronger Identification Pass Key Assembly Committee

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass joins the coalition in support of Senator Pérez’s No Vigilantes Act (SB 805) and Senator Wiener’s No Secret Police Act (SB 627).

SAN FRANCISCO – The Assembly Public Safety Committee passed Senator Scott Wiener’s (D-San Francisco) Senate Bill (SB) 627 — the No Secret Police Act — and Senator Renée Pérez’s (D-Pasadena) SB 805 — the No Vigilantes Act. The bills, respectively, prohibit law enforcement at all levels from concealing their faces and require them to identify themselves clearly. As the Trump Administration expands the use of secret police tactics, SB 627 and 805 boost transparency and support public safety by bolstering public trust in law enforcement. 

SB 627 passed 5-2, and SB 805 7-0. Both bills head next to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

“The ICE masked secret police are raining terror on communities across California, and it has to stop. Law enforcement should never be easily confused with the guy in the ski mask robbing a liquor store, yet that’s what’s happening with ICE’s extreme masking behavior. ICE’s brazenly illegal conduct — including straight up racial profiling by masked, unidentified agents — is undermining public safety, creating extreme fear, and destroying confidence in law enforcement. If we want the public to trust law enforcement, we cannot allow any officer of the law to behave like secret police in an authoritarian state,” said Senator Wiener. “Law enforcement officers do critically important work to keep our communities safe, and they should be proud to show their faces and provide identifying information in the course of duty. Doing so boosts trust in law enforcement, which makes it easier for law enforcement to do their jobs and makes California safer for all of us.”

“We are moving forward with great urgency to get this legislation to the Governor’s desk,” said Senator Pérez. “With the rise in police impersonation cases and the general fear created by nameless and unidentified people carrying out law enforcement operations on our streets, we must strengthen the state’s policing powers. The public and its agents must be able to distinguish between authorized law enforcement personnel and dangerous criminals.”

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass announced her support of both bills, joining a broad coalition of civil rights, privacy, and labor organizations:

“These unlawful raids and the presence of masked individuals in our city has done nothing but incite fear — it does not make Angelenos safer. I want to thank Senators Wiener and Pérez for their collaboration and for bringing this important legislation forward,” said Mayor Bass.

ICE Raids Strike Terror Into Californians

In recent months, federal law enforcement officers have conducted raids — in California and across the country — while covering their faces and, at times, badges, names, and other identifying information. They sometimes wear jackets stating “Police” — effectively impersonating local law enforcement. Such raids have occurred in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Concord, Downey, Montebello, and many other places since the new federal administration began ramping up its immigration enforcement efforts.

Last week, California won a restraining order blocking indiscriminate ICE raids in Southern California after a judge found that the agency had profiled California residents by race, denied detainees access to lawyers, and targeted Californians for hanging out at work sites like Home Depot.

ICE officers’ conduct during these raids has put Californians’ safety at risk. During a raid on families attending immigration court hearings in San Francisco last week, ICE officers drove an SUV into a crowd of protestors, injuring one woman. They also pepper sprayed protestors, threw several to the ground, and brandished a rifle at a reporter.

In some operations, federal law enforcement have appeared masked to grab residents off the street and whisk them away to detention centers across state lines without contacting their families or loved ones. University students, workers, and others have been grabbed off the street, sent to detention centers, and even been sent to a gulag in El Salvador.

These behaviors around face coverings and failure to provide identifying information have uncovered for the public a glaring omission in state law: That law enforcement should generally be identifying themselves and not hiding their identities. And given that the current federal administration is urging and even trying to force state and local law enforcement to help enforce immigration laws, California must end this omission for all levels of law enforcement. 

Masks Spur Public Safety Threats

The increase in masked law enforcement operations has already spurred dangerous copycat activity. In February of this year at least three states reported arresting individuals for allegedly impersonating ICE agents:

• In South Carolina, a man was charged with kidnapping and impersonating a police officer after detaining a group of Latino men at a traffic stop, telling them “You’re going back to Mexico!”
• In North Carolina, a man was arrested for allegedly impersonating an ICE officer and sexually assaulting a woman, threatening to deport her if she refused to have sex with him.
• In Florida, a woman was recently arrested for allegedly dressing as a masked ICE officer and kidnapping her ex-boyfriend's wife. 

The No Secret Police Act (SB 627)

The bill defines law enforcement officers as any peace officer at the local, state, or federal level, or any person acting on behalf of a federal law enforcement agency. A first violation of the bill’s prohibition is punishable as an infraction. A second or subsequent violation of this bill is punishable as either an infraction or misdemeanor. 

As amended in Assembly Public Safety, SB 627 exempts facial coverings that are clear or translucent, N95 medical masks or surgical masks to protect against transmission of disease or infection, and any other mask or device, including but not limited to air purifying respirators, full or half-masks, or self-contained breathing apparatus’ necessary to protect against exposure to any toxin, gas, smoke, or any other hazardous environmental condition. The bill also exempts protective gear worn by SWAT teams, and officers engaged in undercover operations.

SB 627 is joint authored by Senators Pérez and Arreguin (D-Berkeley), and coauthored by Senators Becker (D-Menlo Park), Caballero (D-Merced), Gonzalez (D-Long Beach), McNerney (D-Pleasanton), Menjivar (D-Los Angeles) and Smallwood-Cuevas (D-Los Angeles) and Assembly Members Bonta (D-Oakland),  Carrillo (D-Palmdale), Elhawary (D-South Los Angeles), Garcia (D-Rancho Cucamonga), Haney (D-San Francisco), Kalra (D-San José), Lee (D-Milpitas), Ortega (D-Hayward), Rogers (D-Santa Rosa), and Schultz (D-Burbank).

SB 627 is sponsored by Mexican-American Legal Defense and Ed Fund (MALDEF), the Prosecutors’ Alliance, and the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice (IC4IJ).

“Today’s vote to advance the No Secret Police Act affirms simple but fundamental principles: the state has a duty to protect its residents, and the residents of California have a right to know who polices them. As long as masked, anonymous agents are raiding our communities with no accountability, the public – and law enforcement officers themselves – will be at risk. SB 627 is a commonsense bill to protect all people of California and prevent the state from ever sliding into a reality where secret police tactics become normalized," said Cristine Soto DeBerry, Executive Director of Prosecutors Alliance Action, a co-sponsor of SB 627.

The No Vigilantes Act (SB 805)

SB 805, the No Vigilantes Act, passed its first legislative committee today. This bill would expand police impersonation laws and require law enforcement to clearly display name or badge numbers to address public fear and confusion caused by recent aggressive law enforcement operations and heightened cases of police impersonation.

SB 805 now moves to the Assembly Appropriations Committee. This bill is a legislative priority of the California Latino Legislative Caucus. The committee amendments today add an urgency clause that will allow the bill to take effect immediately once signed by the Governor. 

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