AB 451 California Assembly · 2025-2026 Regular Session

Law enforcement policies: restraining orders.

Summary

Existing law requires law enforcement agencies to maintain policies on specified subjects, including, among others, the use of force, gun violence restraining orders, and responding to domestic violence calls. This bill would require each municipal police department and county sheriff's department, the Department of the California Highway Patrol, and the University of California and California State University Police Departments to, on or before January 1, 2027, develop, adopt, and implement written policies and standards to promote safe, consistent, and effective service, implementation, and enforcement of court protection and restraining orders that include firearm access restrictions. The bill would require these policies and standards to, among other things, provide a standard agency process for law enforcement to serve an order against a restrained person in a timely manner and ensure the agency consistently complies with specified requirements under California law governing service of protection and restraining orders. By expanding the duties of local law enforcement, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.

Issues: ✓ Criminal Justice

Bill status signed all 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Feb 2025

Committee Review

Aug 2025

Assembly Passage

Jun 2025

Senate Passage

Sep 2025

Signed into Law

Oct 2025

Introduced Feb 6, 2025 Signed Oct 13, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 4 comparisons

What changed between versions

02/06/25 - Introduced → 06/25/25 - Amended Senate · 4 edits · Jun 25, 2025

MODERATE

The Senate amendment to AB 451 makes primarily structural and clarifying changes to the law enforcement restraining order policy requirements. The most notable substantive change elevates 'providing a standard agency process for law enforcement to serve an order against a restrained person in a timely manner' from a sub-item to a primary requirement in the policies section, making timely service a headline obligation rather than one element among several. Additionally, the standalone provision about informing restrained persons who claim not to possess firearms was consolidated into the broader compliance section as a new sub-item.

REQUIREMENT

The introductory language of the service-of-order policies section (formerly subdivision (e), now (d)) was changed to explicitly require agencies to 'provide a standard agency process for law enforcement to serve the order against a restrained person in a timely manner' as a primary obligation, rather than this being only one sub-item under a general compliance requirement.

TECHNICAL

The standalone provision (old subdivision (h)) requiring officers to inform restrained persons who credibly claim they do not possess firearms about submitting a Department of Justice declaration form was absorbed into the broader firearm relinquishment compliance section (old (g), now (f)) as a new item (4), consolidating related provisions.

Subdivisions were renumbered throughout due to the consolidation: old (e) became (d), old (f) became (e), old (g) became (f), old (i) became (g), old (k) became (h), and old (l) became (i). Sub-items (A), (B), (C) within the service compliance section were renumbered to (1), (2), (3).

The legislative digest was updated to highlight the standard agency process for timely service as a key feature of the bill, reflecting the elevated status of that requirement in the operative text.

06/25/25 - Amended Senate → 09/16/25 - Enrolled · 4 edits · Sep 16, 2025

MODERATE

The enrolled version of AB 451 removes three substantive requirements from the law enforcement policy mandate: it drops gun violence restraining orders from the list of covered order types, eliminates the requirement to train officers on available restraining order options for victims and petitioners, and removes the requirement for a standard process to store, track, and return relinquished firearms. These changes narrow the scope of what agencies must implement by January 1, 2027.

Scope change

The bill's scope was narrowed by removing gun violence restraining orders from the covered order types and eliminating two entire policy requirements (officer training on available order options and a firearms storage/return process), reducing the breadth of what agencies must implement.

SCOPE

Gun violence restraining orders were removed from the list of court protection and restraining order types that agencies must address in their policies under subsection (a).

REQUIREMENT

The entire requirement for agencies to instruct officers about the array of civil and criminal protection and restraining order options available to law enforcement, victim-survivors, and other petitioners was deleted (former subsection (d), which had three detailed paragraphs covering officer-requested orders, emergency protective orders, gun violence restraining orders, workplace violence restraining orders, and coordination with victims and prosecutors).

The requirement for a standard process allowing restrained individuals and community members to safely relinquish firearms to agency custody, including storage, tracking, fee assessment, and return of firearms at order expiration after a background check, was deleted (former subsection (j)).

TECHNICAL

References to 'consent search' were changed to simply 'lawful search' in two places (subsections (e)(3) and (g)(2)(B)), removing the specific mention of consent as a basis for searching.

Floor votes · Senate Sep 11, 2025 · Assembly Jun 2, 2025

How they voted

40–0

Passed

Total votes 40

Sep 11, 2025

D Democratic30

30 Yea

100% Yea

R Republican10

10 Yea

100% Yea

Vote distribution

All Yea All Nay Mixed No data

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Amendments

Oct 13, 2025

Signed into law

Approved by the Governor.

legislature

Sep 12, 2025

Lower · Passed

Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 80. Noes 0. Page 3375.).

lower

Sep 12, 2025

Introduced

In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending.

lower

Sep 11, 2025

Upper · Passed

Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 40. Noes 0. Page 2920.).

upper

Aug 29, 2025

Upper · Passed

From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (August 29).

upper

Aug 18, 2025

Committee

In committee: Referred to suspense file.

upper

Jul 9, 2025

Upper · Passed

From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 13. Noes 0.) (July 8). Re-referred to Com. on APPR.

upper

Jun 25, 2025

Upper · Passed

Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on JUD.

upper

Jun 24, 2025

Introduced

From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on JUD. (Ayes 6. Noes 0.) (June 24).

upper

Jun 11, 2025

Committee

Referred to Coms. on PUB. S. and JUD.

upper

Jun 2, 2025

Lower · Passed

Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 78. Noes 0. Page 1831.)

lower

May 23, 2025

Lower · Passed

From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 14. Noes 0.) (May 23).

lower

Apr 9, 2025

Committee

In committee: Set, first hearing. Referred to APPR. suspense file.

lower

Mar 11, 2025

Lower · Passed

From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 8. Noes 0.) (March 11). Re-referred to Com. on APPR.

lower

Feb 18, 2025

Committee

Referred to Com. on PUB. S.

lower

Feb 7, 2025

Lower · Passed

From printer. May be heard in committee March 9.

lower

1 primary · 0 co-sponsors