Opponents say a new bill would provide law enforcement agencies a loophole to block the release of personnel files

California may roll back hard-won transparency measures for officer personnel and disciplinary records.

Five years after a landmark bill reversed three decades of legislation and court decisions that built a wall around internal misconduct records in the Golden State, a proposed bill authored by Democratic assemblywoman Blanca Pacheco – with the backing of the Los Angeles sheriff’s department and much of California’s police and prosecutors’ unions – could wall off all personnel files for officers deemed to be working in an “undercover” capacity.

The author was a co-plaintiff in the litigation that led to California’s supreme court affirming the public’s right to obtain police personnel files