Assemblyman Jim Cooper's Kate Tibbitts Act Fails Public Safety Committee

Listen: Assemblyman Jim Cooper talks AB 1827 - The Kate Tibbitts Act would have required all high-risk parolees who declare they are transient to wear a location-monitoring device until an address for the parolee is confirmed. Additionally, the legislation would have created a misdemeanor offense when a high-risk parolee knowingly refuses to report to their parole agent and would make the violation subject to up to 6 months in County Jail (not State Prison) upon conviction. Furthermore, AB 1827 would have granted authority to the courts to not sentence a parolee to county jail but to instead revisit the stipulations of their parole.

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AB 1827 failed on a 2-5 vote in the Assembly Committee on Public Safety

Democrats who voted against the bill: Reginald Byron Jones-Saywer, Mia Bonta, Isaac Bryan, Bill Quirk, Miguel Santiago.

Republicans who voted for the bill: Tom Lackey, Kelly Seyarto

https://apsf.assembly.ca.gov/committeehome

On September 3, 2021, 61-year-old Kate Tibbitts and her two dogs were brutally murdered and her home set on fire in Sacramento’s Land Park neighborhood. The suspect in the case was a transient high-risk parolee. “It is frustrating and painful to know that today the Legislature failed to take steps in preventing future tragedies like the one that our family experienced,” said Dan Tibbitts. “The legislation authored by Assemblymember Jim Cooper and named of after our late sister would have made a difference in holding criminals accountable and protecting the public,” added Tibbitts.