California Gov. Jerry Brown signed two progressive laws this week that help ensure police accountability in the Golden State.

On Tuesday, the Democratic governor signed S.B. 227, making California the first state to prohibit secret grand juries from deciding whether to indict police officers in cases involving excessive or deadly force.

According to Democratic State Sen. Holly Mitchell of Los Angeles, the author of S.B. 227, the bill would help make judicial proceedings more transparent and accountable.

"The use of the criminal grand jury process, and the refusal to indict as occurred in Ferguson and other communities of color, has fostered an atmosphere of suspicion that threatens to compromise our justice system," said Mitchell in a statement, according to Mother Jones.

Under the new law, the prosecutor will decide whether to charge a police officer with using deadly force.

Brown also passed the "right to record" bill, which affirms the public's right to take audio, photos or video recordings of police officers in public areas.

"With the stroke of a pen, Gov. Brown reinforces our 1st Amendment right and ensures transparency, accountability and justice for all Californians," said the bill's author, state Sen. Ricardo Lara, in a statement, reports the Los Angeles Times. "At a time when cellphone and video footage is helping steer important national civil rights conversations, passage of the Right to Record Act sets an example for the rest of the nation to follow."

Both bills were passed in wake of the unrest that followed the grand jury decision not to indict the officer who killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and the cop who killed Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York.

Following Garner's death in 2014 and the grand jury decision not to indict New York Police Department officer Daniel Pantaleo, the New York chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) began a campaign to make public the records of what transpired in the grand jury. However, the ACLU's request for the records have been rejected by two different court judges.

"When a grand jury makes a decision about whether or not to indict an officer in the killing of a New Yorker, the public has a right to know why," Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement. "There is a deep and well-founded suspicion of the criminal justice system partly because no one has been accountable for the death of Eric Garner and the community doesn't know why."

The group plans to appeal the decision again.