California police departments have some of the highest rates of killings in the nation. In 2017, 162 people lost their lives at the hands of law enforcement. Current law allows for too much officer discretion and justification for extrajudicial murder.

In the aftermath of Stephon Clark's murder by Sacramento Police Officers Terrence Mercadal and Jared Robinet, Assembly members Shirley Weber, D-San Diego, and Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento introduced this bill to change the legal standard governing police use of deadly force.

On June 19th, the California Senate Committee on Public Safety will hold a hearing for AB 931. The bill has already passed the Assembly, please call these CA Senators to ask for a common sense standard to protect the sanctity of life for all people in California. 

AB 931 would limit the authorized use of deadly force for all law enforcement agencies in California by:

• Changing state policy to allow the use of deadly force only when necessary to prevent imminent and serious bodily injury or death.
• Making a homicide committed by a peace officer justifiable only if the use of deadly force by a peace officer was necessary given the totality of the circumstances, but would exclude those situations in which the gross negligence of the officer contributes to creating the necessity.
• Authorizing deadly force against persons fleeing from arrest or imprisonment only when the officer has probable cause to believe that the person has committed, or intends to commit, a felony involving serious bodily injury or death, and there is an imminent risk of serious bodily injury or death to the officer or to another person if the subject is not immediately apprehended.

Please call now to protect Black lives.