California Looks to Drop Citizenship Mandate for Law Enforcement

California is poised to become the latest state to allow noncitizens to work as law enforcement officers, a response to persistent hiring struggles that seeks to draw on an untapped talent pool.

Legislation (S.B. 960) on Gov. Gavin Newsom‘s (D) desk would drop the state’s current citizenship requirement to work as a peace officer, putting California among the ranks of states like Colorado, Vermont, and West Virginia that don’t have that standard for police and other law enforcement officers.

Law enforcement agencies across the country were hard-pressed to find qualified candidates years before the current national labor ...