Among the issues that lawmakers were discussing were changes to "qualified immunity" that protects police officers from some lawsuits.
Gov. Gavin Newsom now has 12 days to sign or veto the bill, which passed the California Assembly with a vote of 46 to 18 on Friday. It was previously passed in the state Senate on May 26 with a vote of 26 to 9.
It is unclear if a police reform proposal without changes to qualified immunity could pass the House, where progressive Democrats like Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), a former Black Lives Matter activist, have called the removal of qualified immunity a redline.
A pursuit in a building ended with a suspect falling out of a window, officers using force, and a lawsuit.
The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which would ban chokeholds, require that deadly force only be used as a last resort in arrests, and effectively end qualified immunity.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) signed a bill Wednesday ending qualified immunity for all government workers, including police. New Mexico is the first state to end qualified immunity for all public employees.
The qualified immunity doctrine is used in state and federal court, so it's unclear how a city can revoke the potential protection it provides to officers.
The bill would ban all neck restraints, including chokeholds and the kind used on Floyd as well as no-knock warrants in drug cases. It would also end the application of the doctrine of qualified immunity for law enforcement officers.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) and former Rep. Justin Amash, a Libertarian from Michigan, first introduced the legislation last year in the wake of anti-police protests and riots following the in-custody death of George Floyd.
Activists have launched a political and legislative campaign to make it even easier to sue you.
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