A bill introduced by local Assemblyman Heath Flora’s, designed to protect children from child predators and human trafficking, officially headed to the Governor’s desk after passing both chambers of the State Legislature.

AB 1892 was inspired by Flora’s experience joining the Sacramento County Sheriff on a large sting operation to track down and apprehend criminals who target kids for sexual exploitation.

“We asked the Sheriff and his team what steps we could take at the state level to address the issue of child sexual exploitation and trafficking,” said Flora. “Getting ‘tough-on-crime’ laws passed in the California Legislature can be a challenge, but we’ve made some serious progress in 2024 to correct course. AB 1892 is just one example.”

Current law allows for a judge to authorize the interception of electronic communications with probable cause that the suspect is committing or about to commit certain felonies related to murder, kidnapping, and other serious crimes. However, child sexual exploitation is not on this list of felonies.

“Some of the text messages and other electronic correspondence we saw between suspects planning to sexually exploit children were extremely disturbing,” Flora said of the sting operation. “These people, if you can even call them people, talk openly and in explicit detail about what they plan to do with these innocent kids.”

AB 1892 would add child pornography and exploitation-related felonies to the list of crimes eligible for expedited search warrants if a judge determines probable cause, expanding options while maintaining judicial discretion.

“To keep it simple; AB 1892 gives judges the authority to expedite search warrants if probable cause is determined that child exploitation is taking place,” Flora explained of the bill. “We had another similar bill that did not make it out of the Senate, but AB 1892 did and we really hope the Governor signs it into law.”

The bill would expedite the search warrant application process allowing the court to issue an order authorizing an interception of wire or electronic communications of child predators if a judge finds that there is probable cause to believe an individual is committing, has committed, or is about to commit a felony violation of specified statutes relating to the child pornography and exploitation.

Assemblyman Heath Flora represents the communities of Acampo, Copperopolis, Del Rio, Denair, Empire, Escalon, Farmington, Galt, Hickman, Hughson, Ione, La Grange, Lathrop, Linden, Lockeford, Lodi, Manteca, Oakdale, Rancho Murieta, Ripon, Riverbank, Salida, Waterford, and Wilton.