Los Banos Police Department summery of AB-481 Military Equipment Funding, Acquisition and Use Policy

On September 30, 2021, Governor Newson signed policing reform legislation aimed at increasing transparency of peace officer misconduct records and creates a system to decertify peace officers for serious misconduct, improving policing responsibility and accountability guidelines, raising eligibility standards, banning harmful restraint techniques, and creating a public forum for the funding, acquisition and use of military equipment.

AB 481 was authored by Assembly member David Chiu (D- San Francisco) to address the funding, acquisition and use of military equipment.

AB 481 definition of military equipment

The Assembly Bill has designated the following categories of items as military equipment. The Los Banos Police Department has equipment that meets criteria of 5 of the 15 categories (categories 1,5,10,12 and 14):

• Unmanned, remotely piloted, powered aerial or ground vehicles (Equipment Category 1).
• Command and control vehicles that are either built or modified to facilitate the operational control and direction of public safety units (Equipment Category 5).
• Specialized firearms and ammunition of less than 50 caliber, including firearms and accessories identified as assault weapons in penal code 30510 and penal code 30515, with the exception of standard issue handguns (Equipment Category 10).
• Munitions containing teargas or OC, excluding standard, service-issued handheld pepper spray (Equipment Category 12).
• Kinetic energy weapons and munitions (Equipment Category 14).

The full text of AB 481 is available here

The requirements of AB 481

AB 481 requires each law enforcement agency’s governing body to adopt a written military use policy by ordinance in a public forum by April 30, 2022, in order to continue the use of its previously acquired equipment effective May 1, 2022. To help guide this process, the Los Banos Police Department has crafted a summary of AB 481 for our residents, as well as the following required materials:

• Los Banos Police Department ‘s Lexipol policy 706 is available to review here. The AB 481 defined list of military equipment currently in Los Banos Police Department ‘s possession is included in the policy, as well as each items purpose, authorized used, and expected lifespan and fiscal impact, you can see the military equipment policy here.
• Establish a concern or complement process. The Los Banos Police Department has created a means for the public to submit commendations, questions and complaints. Additional information is available here (Complaint Form) and here (Compliment Employee Commendation Form).
• Prepare an Annual Report to include the use of military equipment, any complaints received, any internal audits or other information about violations of Los Banos Police Department policy section 706, the cost of such use and other similar information. This webpage will be utilized for distribution of any updates to the above materials as well as the Annual Report. The first Annual Report will be distributed on or around May, 2023

Note: Los Banos Police Department does not utilize, any equipment procured from the United States Department of Defense through the Law Enforcement support program (also known as the 1028 or the 1033 program).

Public input regarding AB 481

As required for transparency, the Los Banos Police Department has uploaded multiple written documents on this website 30-days prior to a public meeting to meet the requirements of AB 481.

The Los Banos Police Department will generate a report which will be considered by the Los Banos City Council at a City Council Meeting on May 4,2022. Complete agenda packets with backup reports for City Council Meetings are available online. Public comments for the meeting are encouraged in any of the following ways:

• In person
• The City’s website
• The other City’s Facebook page
• Submit a comment in the section connected to the City Council Meeting.