(1) Existing law prescribes certain evidentiary privileges that apply to civil or criminal proceedings.
This bill would provide that a public entity and public employee both have the privilege to refuse to disclose, and to prevent another from disclosing, information pertaining to a public employee's bias that was obtained through or as a result of bias mitigation or elimination efforts. The bill would define "bias mitigation or elimination efforts" as training and education provided by a public employer that asks employees to understand, recognize, or acknowledge the influence of conscious and unconscious bias and implements strategies to mitigate the impact of such bias. The bill would prohibit the invocation of this privilege in a criminal proceeding.
(2) Existing law enumerates specific evidence that is inadmissible in civil or criminal proceedings due to extrinsic policies.
This bill would make evidence of a bias mitigation or elimination efforts relating to a public employee, including the results of those efforts and any specific strategies developed to address the public employee's bias conducted by or on behalf of a public entity, confidential and inadmissible in a civil proceeding for any purpose.