Senator Nguyen Receives Top Rating from CA Police Chiefs Assn

(Garden Grove, CA) In recognition of her efforts to enhance the public safety of California’s more than 39 million residents, the California Police Chiefs Association (CPCA) has given Senator Janet Nguyen a “100%” rating on their 2017 Legislative Scorecard. The CPCA Legislative Scorecard is an annual report that tracks public safety legislation and measures how state legislators voted on important public safety-related bills.

“As a public safety advocate, my goal is to provide the community, as well as law enforcement, the tools necessary to deter crime and keep our children and families safe,” said Senator Janet Nguyen. “In this endeavor, I am proud to count on the support of law enforcement in my District as I fight for laws that protect our community.”

Founded in 1966, the CPCA represents 330 active municipal police chiefs and their agencies. Association members are responsible for the public safety of more than 26 million Californians. To compile the 2017 Legislative Scorecard, CPCA evaluated votes on bills that impact the safety of Californians. Among the 11 bills considered for the Legislative Scorecard were bills that negatively impact public safety such as Assembly Bill 186 (Eggman) which would allow “safe injection sites” for drug users, Senate Bill 54 (De Leon) which limits the cooperation of state law enforcement agencies with federal immigration authorities, and Senate Bill 620 (Bradford) which would allow judges to eliminate mandatory gun enhancements in sentencing. Senator Nguyen’s votes on all 11 bills were aligned with CPCA’s position.

In her capacity as a legislator, Senator Nguyen also assisted law enforcement by authoring Senate Bill 610 (SB 610), Erica’s Law, which was signed by the Governor in July 2017. This law extends the statute of limitations on cases of body concealment, to one year from the time a suspect is initially identified by law enforcement and places a four year limit from when the crime occurred. SB 610 effectively provides law enforcement authorities more time to hold those responsible for crimes of body concealment accountable.

Since being elected to the State Legislature in 2014, Senator Nguyen has consistently proposed legislation to address crime. In 2015, Senator Nguyen authored Senate Bill 353 (SB 353) to allocate savings from the 2011 Public Safety Realignment to local agencies to improve offender outcomes and enhance public safety. The 2011 Public Safety Realignment shifted the responsibility for lower-level felons from the state to counties but did not provide sufficient funds for local services that would protect public safety while holding offenders accountable. With this same goal in mind, in 2017, Senator Janet Nguyen partnered with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department to introduce Senate Bill 284 (SB 284), a property crime bill that would have given law enforcement the option to book and hold violators who commit misdemeanor property crimes like burglary, theft, and shoplifting. Under current law, perpetrators of any of these crimes, are only cited and released if the items stolen are valued under $950.

The CPCA Scorecard is a valuable indicator of a legislator’s commitment to public safety. Senator Nguyen was among 8 State Senators to receive the distinct recognition of a 100% rating from CPCA for the 2017 Legislative Year.

About Senator Janet Nguyen

Senator Janet Nguyen was overwhelmingly elected to represent the residents of California’s 34th State Senate District in 2014. With this victory, Senator Nguyen became the first woman elected to represent the 34th Senate District and the first Vietnamese-American in the country to be elected to the State Senate. Senator Nguyen is the highest-ranking Vietnamese American elected official in the State of California.

The 34th State Senate District includes the cities of Fountain Valley, Garden Grove, Los Alamitos, Santa Ana, Seal Beach, Westminster, the unincorporated communities of Midway City and Rossmoor, as well as portions of Anaheim, Huntington Beach, Long Beach, and Orange.