New California police reform laws will provide 'more accountability' for officers

An LAPD officer.
(Image credit: Apu Gomes/Getty Images)

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed eight police reform bills into law on Thursday, with the sweeping new measures doing everything from raising the minimum age of officers from 18 to 21 to enacting statewide standards on use of rubber bullets and tear gas used for crowd control.

Newsom signed the bills days after congressional bipartisan negotiations for police reform legislation fell apart. "I want folks not to lose hope, that just because things aren't happening in Washington, D.C., that we can't move the needle here, not just in our state but in states all across the country," he said.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.