SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Days after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a 2019 law meant to reduce police shootings, law enforcement union leaders began telling officers that the new policy didn't really change much at all.
It did not put more stringent limits on when police can use deadly force, the president of one of the state's most influential police unions wrote in a memo to its member agencies, and "will not significantly impact the way law enforcement performs their daily jobs," according to documents made public with a recent legal settlement.
Alarmed by the "misinformation campaign" targeting the new restrictions on police use of deadly force, the American Civil Liberties Union sued the Pomona Police Department in July 2020 for adopting policies and training materials influenced by the union's effort to undermine the law.
