The California Legislature operates a two-year session. The session runs from January 1st to the middle of September each year. This January marks the first month of a new session so bills introduced are seeing the first light of day.
There are literally thousands of bills introduced each session, dealing with everything imaginable. Out of this morass we find a number of bills dealing with issues we feel are important to you.
The COPS legislative department searches for legislation dealing with peace officers, their families, crime and punishment, officer working conditions, insurance, workers compensation, and a host of other issues. We sponsor bills that will benefit our members, their families, and the safety of the public.
We sometimes include bills that do not specifically affect us, but affect another industry with which we are aligned or sympathetic. It could be a labor issue or something dealing with the movie industry, flight attendants, the medical community, or animal welfare. Invariably, it is an issue that is just, right, and fair…and needs help.
Every bill that fits our criteria is examined, researched and placed in our legislative agenda. Within that agenda bills are categorized as “Support”, “Opposed” “Neutral” or “Watch”. This category is ascertained depending upon what affect the bill will have on the people we serve.
For instance, if a bill is introduced that will, we believe, reduce the possibilities of a criminal preying on the elderly, that bill is classified as “Support”. “Support” and “Oppose’ bills require, position papers, discussions with members and their staff and testimony before each and every committee in which it is heard.
On the other side of that coin, if a bill would for instance, eliminate our pension system; we actively oppose it, until it is dead.
As a matter of course, COPS’ legislative agenda includes some 60 to 80 bills a year. That is a huge amount of research and involvement.
Why do we do all of this?
Because we feel we have a responsibility to our members, their families and to the public to serve them as best we possibly can. When you sign on as a peace officer you make a vow to serve and protect. We, in the legislative arena, make that same vow, and we take it very seriously.
On a national level, COPS is a member of the National Coalition of Public Safety Officers (NCPSO), a part of the Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO. In that capacity we are working for the betterment of public safety officers nationwide. So, we not only walk the halls of the State Capitol in Sacramento, you will also find us in our nation’s capitol.
If you access our legislative page over the coming weeks you will see our list of bills grow as we pick those most important to COPS and to you. So, stay tuned and visit us at: www.cops.cc.
