California Shifts Police Shooting Probes To Attorney General

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – Forty to 50 times a year, new teams from the California Department of Justice will now be expected to respond to fatal police shootings of unarmed civilians. Those investigations have previously been handled by local agencies themselves, with local district attorneys deciding whether the shootings were legally justified. A new California law turns that responsibility over to the state attorney general’s office, with the premise that the state’s top law enforcement officer can be more removed from local pressures. The shift in responsibility drew mixed reactions as Attorney General Rob Bonta on Wednesday released five documents outlining how his office will handle its new role.

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