California residents can now decide to not help police with arrests without facing a misdemeanor charge for making the decision.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, D, on Tuesday signed legislation striking down an 1872 law that also carried a fine of up to $1,000 for any “able-bodied person 18 years of age or older” who did not respond to an officer’s call for assistance in making an arrest, The Sacramento Bee reports.
The new law reverses the California Posse Comitatus Act of 1872, which was used widely in the early days of the United States, particularly in enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act.
State Sen. Bob Hertzberg, D-Los Angeles, who introduced the legislation in January, slammed the old regulation as “a vestige of a bygone era” that subjected citizens to “an untenable moral dilemma,” the Bee reports.
Hertzberg said that his interns discovered the old law when as they sought to identify outdated regulations.
Cory Salzillo, legislative director or the California State Sheriffs' Association, told CNN that the bill discouraged cooperation or helping out law enforcement.
"We are unfamiliar with concerns with this statute other than it was enacted many years ago and carries a fine for a person who disobeys it," the association said in a June statement reported by CNN.
"There are situations in which a peace officer might look to private persons for assistance in matters of emergency or risks to public safety and we are unconvinced that this statute should be repealed."
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