LEGISLATIVE LEADERSHIP AWARD
Alex Padilla
Senator, 20th Senate District
Senator Alex Padilla has long been an effective and concerned public servant working toward the improvement of the lives of his constituents. He has sponsored bills on education, worked to improve fire safety and has been a crucial ally of the law enforcement community.
In particular, his sponsorship and championing of a 2010 bill to reinstate a ban on the possession of body armor by violent felons demonstrated his commitment to providing safer working conditions for law enforcement officers and protecting the community at large.
Two infamous incidents in the 1990s prompted state lawmakers to make it illegal for individuals previously convicted of violent felonies to possess body armor. In 1994, a carjacking suspect donning full body armor engaged San Francisco police officers in a 32-minute gun battle that left Officer James Guelff dead and other responders wounded. In 1997, bank robbers in North Hollywood used the protection of body armor to fend off Los Angeles P.D. officers’ attempts to apprehend them, leading to a protracted gun battle that engaged over 350 officers and ended only after higher-caliber weapons were brought in.
The need for a ban against violent felons’ possession of body armor was clear, and the James Guelff Body Armor Act accomplished this in California for over a decade. But in 2009, a California court found the law vague and unconstitutional and struck it down, leaving law enforcement officers and the California public without this important protection against this special kind of armed and prepared felon.
In 2010, Senator Padilla stepped in to remedy the situation by authoring and actively sponsoring California Senate Bill 408, which more clearly defined the definition of body armor and reinstated the prohibition of possession of such armor by violent felons. As Senator Padilla told the news media in a press conference, “This legislation is an important tool in protecting the safety of peace officers in the line of duty. Violent felons have no business possessing body armor. It’s just common sense. … I intend to move Senate Bill 408 swiftly through the legislative process and to the Governor as quickly as possible so that we can reinstate this prohibition without delay.”
Senate Bill 408 was signed into law by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in June 2010 and an important safeguard for the lives of law enforcement officers was restored. Without Senator Padilla’s bill and his expert guidance of the bill through the legislative process, this protection may not have come as quickly as it did.
