Kindergarten cops? Yes. Welfare fraud investigators? No.
The state lawmaker who wanted to exempt from jury duty all California peace officers — and that’s a mighty long list of people — significantly scaled back a bill that would have done just that. Assemblywoman Cathleen Galgiani, D-Merced, said at a legislative hearing today that she’s amended AB 1769 to only exempt cops at K-12 schools and community college.
Right now, police officers, sheriff’s deputies, CHP officers and BART cops all get an automatic pass on jury duty on the grounds that public safety might be threatened if they had to serve and, well, attorneys would probably give them the boot during voir dire anyway. UC and CSU campus officers also get an exemption, but only from criminal cases.
Galgiani, at the urging of several law enforcement groups, wanted to give all peace officers a summons shield, arguing that small agencies with a security force shouldn’t have to pay big overtime bucks to cover the job of an employee who probably won’t serve on a jury anyway. But state Penal Code declares tens of thousands of people peace officers, including correctional officers, game wardens, public museum guards and horse racing investigators.
Galgiani said the new version of her bill will only exempt an additional 700 officers. But the Judicial Council and the California Judges Association still don’t like it, saying the exemptions would unfairly shrink jury pools. The Assembly Public Safety Committee sided with Galgiani and law enforcement groups, though, and approved the bill. AB 1769 faces a full vote of the Assembly and more vetting in the state Senate before it can go to the governor’s desk.
— Cheryl Miller
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