Local agency, public utility, or mutual water company: personnel access: Personal Identity Verification-Interoperable.

Existing law authorizes officers of the Department of the California Highway Patrol, police departments, marshal's office or sheriff's office, and officers or employees of the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection or the Department of Fish and Wildlife designated as peace officers to close to all unauthorized persons an area where a menace to the public health or safety created by a calamity exists for the duration of the menace and the immediate area surrounding any emergency field command post or any other command post activated for the purpose of abating a calamity, riot, or other civil disturbance, as specified. Under existing law, an unauthorized person who enters or remains in a closed area, as prescribed, is guilty of a misdemeanor.

This bill would, beginning on July 1, 2028, require the Office of Emergency Services, upon request, to issue a local agency, public utility, or mutual water company responsible for public works and critical infrastructure with specified credentialing to facilitate personnel access to an area during or following a natural disaster, act of terrorism, or other man-made disaster. The bill would specify that the credentialing, a Personal Identity Verification-Interoperable (PIV-I), would conform with the federal Personal Identity Verification standards pursuant to federal National Incident Management System guidelines.

This bill would require the application for a PIV-I card to be signed by a duly authorized representative of a local agency, public utility, or mutual water company and include a certification by the local agency, public utility, or mutual water company.

This bill would require the office to impose and collect a fee from a local agency, public utility, or mutual water company for a PIV-I card that does not exceed the reasonable costs of the identification card program.

This bill would specify that the authorization for particular officers to close an area, as described above, shall not prevent an individual who holds a valid PIV-I card or an individual who holds a valid identification card issued by a local agency, public utility, or mutual water company from entering the closed area unless a peace officer finds that the disaster is of such a nature that it would be unsafe for the cardholder to enter or that the presence of the cardholder would interfere with disaster response.