State Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Wednesday that starting this month, his office will now determine charging police in all fatal police shootings of unarmed civilians, instead of local district attorneys.
There is an average of 40 to 50 police shootings in California each year. Local law enforcement and prosecutors typically handled these incidents in the past, according to reporting by KTVU.
With the new process, Bonta said there will be two teams from his office, composed of 27 agents, to review these cases in both northern and southern parts of the state.
The teams will not automatically be sent to other in-custody deaths, like deaths in which officers used chokeholds, but Bonta said his office could be called in on a case-by-case basis.
The teams will be immediately deployed to the shooting death scene. The matter will then be reviewed by a team of special state prosecutors.
Teams will begin reviewing any case that occurred on July 1 and after.
"You can't have trust without accountability and transparency," Bonta said, adding that the implementation of this law will help increase trust.
