A landmark report from the state’s reparations task force could take decades to implement, as major proposals remain unpopular with voters.

Both legislative proposals that failed in recent days had authors who argued they were needed to protect Black residents who are disproportionately stopped and arrested. 

Assemblymember Corey Jackson (D-Perris), who carried the police canines legislation, cited research compiled by the task force linking the use of dogs — dating back to slavery — to intergenerational trauma experienced in Black communities. Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, a Los Angeles Democrat, based his bill to restrict vehicle searches on a recommendation from California’s Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board based on research showing that people of color are more likely to be randomly stopped and searched.

Lawmakers’ rejection of those bills last week was a missed opportunity to make a statement in support of reparations, said Natasha Minsker, a policy adviser for Smart Justice California. She argued Democratic lawmakers can’t credibly say they are for a committee that the Legislature and Newsom created but then refuse to back legislation that’s in line with its goals.

“I do hope that legislators understand that supporting the work of the reparations task force means supporting police reform,” Minsker said. “The history of policing in the United States is unfortunately deeply tied to slave patrols and the whole history of enforcing slavery as an institution.”

Like most police reform bills, the measures faced stiff opposition from Democratic officials representing swing districts or regions with few residents of color. Powerful law enforcement groups argue that canines are a safer tool that decreases the likelihood an officer will use a gun, and that taking away the ability for officers to easily search cars will make their jobs harder and put communities at risk.

“When we’re looking for solutions and ideas on how to address community safety, we’re happy to have a conversation about what that looks like and what that entails,” said Brian Marvel, president of the Peace Officers Research Association of California. “But you can’t continually take tools away from law enforcement.”

It’s an especially sensitive topic for legislators who oppose the bills on their merits and have largely refused to engage on the broader matter of race. But some former lawmakers view slivers of hope from past fights. Mike Gatto, a former Democratic assemblymember from the Los Angeles area, pointed to what lawmakers have come to know as “the lesson of Gil Cedillo” — the longtime progressive Democratic lawmaker who year after year introduced a bill to grant California driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants in the state. Versions failed, were vetoed or were overturned. Ultimately, Cedillo gave a fellow Democrat his blessing to carry it, and the legislation was passed and signed by Jerry Brown in 2013.

“He kept at it for more than a decade and eventually what seemed controversial was something a lot of people ended up getting behind,” Gatto recalled.

The next salvo in the long-running debate will likely come with the larger context provided by the reparations task force. Lisa Holder, an attorney and task force member, said she’s under no illusion that lawmakers will receive the group’s recommendations with open arms. There’s also the practical reality along with the fact that politicians ultimately respond to the voters in their districts, and a large percentage of Californians simply don’t support the concept of reparations.

“Lawmakers don’t exist in a vacuum,” Holder said. “They act when the public is galvanized for change.”

But Holder said she’s optimistic about the task force’s potential to make long-term cultural changes. “It’s going to take decades to reverse centuries of damage,” she said. “It’s absurd to approach this as a short-term project.”

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story listed an outdated affiliation for Natasha Minsker. She is now a policy adviser for Smart Justice California.

CLARIFICATION: This story has been updated to clarify that one criminal justice reform bill would have required police to have a warrant or probable cause to search vehicles.