---
type: "Bill"
title: "Criminal gangs."
description: "Existing law, the California Street Terrorism Enforcement and Prevention Act (act) , provides specified punishments for certain crimes committed for the benefit of, at the direction of, or in association with, a criminal street gang, as specified. The act defines a \"shared gang database\" as having various attributes, including, among others, that the database contains personal, identifying information in which a person may be designated as a suspected gang member, associate, or affiliate, or for which entry of a person in the database reflects a designation of that person as a suspected gang member, associate, or affiliate. Existing law requires a law enforcement agency, before designating a person as a suspected gang member, associate, or affiliate in the database, to provide a written notice to the person's parent or guardian, if the person is a minor."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20152016"
identifier: "AB 2298"
citation: "California AB 2298 (20152016)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Criminal gangs."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Weber"]
version_count: 8
action_count: 26
vote_count: 8
first_action: "2016-02-18"
last_action: "2016-09-28"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/9f674b22-b0df-4002-929d-20e535facd5e"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB2298"
source_hash: "5848673fd614aaa74e1cf06cd452173670ca649b034a745a641f438353ec25df"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 2298 (20152016) — Criminal gangs.

Existing law, the California Street Terrorism Enforcement and Prevention Act (act) , provides specified punishments for certain crimes committed for the benefit of, at the direction of, or in association with, a criminal street gang, as specified. The act defines a "shared gang database" as having various attributes, including, among others, that the database contains personal, identifying information in which a person may be designated as a suspected gang member, associate, or affiliate, or for which entry of a person in the database reflects a designation of that person as a suspected gang member, associate, or affiliate. Existing law requires a law enforcement agency, before designating a person as a suspected gang member, associate, or affiliate in the database, to provide a written notice to the person's parent or guardian, if the person is a minor.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/18/16 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB2298&version=20150AB229899INT)
2. **03/17/16 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB2298&version=20150AB229898AMD)
3. **04/06/16 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB2298&version=20150AB229897AMD)
4. **05/31/16 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB2298&version=20150AB229896AMD)
5. **08/16/16 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB2298&version=20150AB229895AMD)
6. **09/28/16 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB2298&version=20150AB229893CHP)
7. **AB2298** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB2298)
8. **08/30/16 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB2298&version=20150AB229894ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass as amended — **5–2** (pass) · upper
- AB 2298 WEBER Assembly Third Reading — **42–34** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **5–2** (pass) · upper
- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **5–2** (pass) · lower
- Do pass as amended. — **13–7** (pass) · lower
- 3rd Reading AB2298 Weber By Mitchell — **24–9** (pass) · upper
- AB 2298 WEBER Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **42–29** (pass) · lower
- Placed on suspense file — **7–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Weber — primary (person)
- Leno — principal coauthor (person)
- Mitchell — coauthor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2016-02-18** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2016-02-19** From printer. May be heard in committee March 20.
- **2016-03-17** Referred to Com. on PUB. S. `referral-committee`
- **2016-03-17** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on PUB. S. Read second time and amended. `reading-2, amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2016-03-28** Re-referred to Com. on PUB. S. `referral-committee`
- **2016-04-05** In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
- **2016-04-06** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on PUB. S. Read second time and amended. `reading-2, amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2016-04-07** Re-referred to Com. on PUB. S. `referral-committee`
- **2016-04-13** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 5. Noes 2.) (April 12). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee, committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2016-05-04** In committee: Set, first hearing. Referred to APPR. suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2016-05-27** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended. (Ayes 13. Noes 7.) (May 27). `amendment-introduction, committee-passage, amendment-passage`
- **2016-05-31** Read second time and amended. Ordered returned to second reading. `amendment-passage, reading-2, reading-1`
- **2016-06-01** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2016-06-02** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 42. Noes 34. Page 5196.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2016-06-06** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2016-06-09** Referred to Com. on PUB. S. `referral-committee`
- **2016-06-22** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 5. Noes 2.) (June 21). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee, committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2016-08-01** In committee: Referred to APPR. suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2016-08-15** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended. (Ayes 5. Noes 2.) (August 11). `amendment-introduction, committee-passage, amendment-passage`
- **2016-08-16** Read second time and amended. Ordered to third reading. `amendment-passage, reading-2, reading-1`
- **2016-08-23** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 24. Noes 9. Page 5276.). `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2016-08-24** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending. May be considered on or after August 26 pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.
- **2016-08-29** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 42. Noes 29. Page 6384.). `committee-passage-favorable, amendment-passage`
- **2016-09-07** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 12 p.m.
- **2016-09-28** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2016-09-28** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 752, Statutes of 2016.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/9f674b22-b0df-4002-929d-20e535facd5e`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).