The Honorable Xavier Beccerra
California Attorney General
Department of Justice
1300 I Street
Sacramento CA 95814
June 22, 2020
Re: CalGang Database

Dear Attorney General Becerra,

Since the murder of George Floyd, Californians have taken to the streets to express their outrage
and grief, but most importantly to state that Black Lives Matter. Millions of people exercising
their First Amendment rights these past weeks have demonstrated the insufficiency of the
California Department of Justice’s actions to meet their longstanding demand that law
enforcement treat everyone with respect and dignity. Nowhere is that more true than in the
Department’s ineffective effort to reform law enforcement’s use of the CalGang database.

To remedy this, we the undersigned organizations and individuals demand the Department must
immediately place a moratorium on the use of CalGang Database until (1) regulations for its use

 are adopted, (2) trainings are developed with purposeful community input and approved by the
Department, and (3) all users have completed these trainings.

On October 12, 2017, the Legislature chaptered AB 90, assigning to the Department the task of
regulating law enforcement agencies’ use of shared gang databases, with instruction to adopt
rules that would address the racially-biased overinclusion of Black people and other people of
color. The Legislature gave the Department a deadline of January 1, 2020 to accomplish this
task. As of the date of this letter, regulations have yet to be adopted. The Department’s most
recent Revisions to Proposed Regulations (OAL Register 2019-0430-06) delete even the
Department’s revised deadline of July 1, 2020 without offering any new date. In the meantime,
the CalGang database continues to be utilized by law enforcement agencies under the old
policies and practices which the Legislature expressly found unacceptable in 2017. Furthermore,
the currently proposed regulations have prioritized codifying the existing criteria and practices of
law enforcement agencies that led to the criminalization of Black and Latino Californians over
the Legislature’s stated goal of shielding communities from this unnecessary labeling and its
dangerous effects.

CalGang is emblematic of the type of policing that has directly led to the recent unrest
throughout the country. Gang units and other patrols fan out across communities, target Black
people and other people of color, stop them under pretexts like a traffic stop or a supposedly
“consensual” stop, use racist stereotypes to deem them “gang members,” and add their names
and information into the database to be tracked. Police then use these gang labels to justify
further stops, interrogations, uses of force, and enhanced punishment. The Department has yet to
accomplish anything to eradicate this practice despite the Legislature’s instruction and statutory
grant of authority to do exactly that. To the contrary, it has affirmatively rejected amendments
grounded in empirical evidence and community input that would limit the likelihood of harm
inflicted upon communities of color.

While many of us believe that all law enforcement gang databases must be abolished, a
moratorium until the Department has fully implemented reforms that are consistent with its
legislative grant of power is a reasonable and appropriate step that the Department can
immediately take while abolition of gang databases is considered by the broader group of
stakeholders. The Department has little excuse not to take this step. In 2018, the legislature
imposed a moratorium with no negative consequences. Currently, the Los Angeles Police
Department, CalGang’s largest user, has imposed a second moratorium on their department’s use
of CalGang - spurred by the recognition that some entries lack a factual basis and are driven by
harmful presumptions based at least in part upon race, and after finally acknowledging the
damaging effects of continued use of this system, particularly upon the Black community.

 The Department can no longer allow CalGang to continue under the unacceptable old policies
and procedures while the Department misses deadline after deadline, deferring reform. Now is
the time for the Department to recognize that truth, and alongside community partners take
immediate concrete actions by enacting an immediate moratorium on all use of CalGang. The
Department should also take this moment to revisit the proposed regulations and adopt rules for
the use of CalGang that provide real protections to the communities wrongly targeted by gang
labeling for far too long.

Sincerely,

ACLU of California
Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA)
Loyola Immigrant Justice Clinic
Urban Peace Institute
Sammy Nunez - Gang Database Technical Advisory Committee, Chair
Marissa Montes – Gang Database Technical Advisory Committee
Jeremy Thornton – Gang Database Technical Advisory Committee
Paul Carrillo – Gang Database Technical Advisory Committee
Michael Scaffidi – Gang Database Technical Advisory Committee
2nd Call
Anti-Recidivism Coalition
Asian Americans Advancing Justice - CA
Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Los Angeles
Breaking Through Barriers to Success
California Alliance for Youth and Community Justice (CAYCJ)
California Attorneys for Criminal Justice
Californians for Safety and Justice
California Immigrant Policy Center
Central American Resource Center (CARECEN)
Chicanxs Unidos

 Chispa
Community Advocates for Just and Moral Governance (MoGo)
Consumer Attorneys of California
Criminal Justice Clinic, UC Irvine School of Law
Detours Mentoring Group, Inc.
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
Fathers & Families of San Joaquin
Friends Committee on Legislation of California
Ground Game LA
H.E.L.P.E.R. Foundation
Healing Hearts Restoring Hope
Homeboy Industries
Homies Unidos
Immigrant Defense Advocates
Immigrant Legal Resource Center
Latino Coalition for a Healthy California
National Association of Social Workers (NASW) California Chapter
PICO California
Project Kinship
Promesa Boyle Heights
Public Counsel
Restore Justice
Southern California Cease Fire Committee
Southern California Crossroads
UC Irvine School of Law Immigrant Rights Clinic
Young Visionaries Youth Leadership Academy