H. B. 3148
(By Delegates Trump, Douglas, Overington,
Manuel, Doyle and Faircloth)
[Introduced March 30, 2001; referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary then Finance.]
A BILL to amend and reenact sections two, three and four, article
ten, chapter fifteen of the code of West Virginia, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, all relating to
the mutual cooperation between law-enforcement agencies.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That sections two, three and four, article ten, chapter
fifteen of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred
thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted, all to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 10. COOPERATION BETWEEN LAW-ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES.
§15-10-2. Legislative findings.
The Legislature hereby finds and declares that the commission
of various crimes against the peace and dignity of the state of
West Virginia quite often crosses county,
and municipal
and state
boundaries, affecting the citizenry of this state and making
difficult the tasks of detecting and preventing crime by law-enforcement agencies due to restrictions imposed by municipal,
and county
and state boundaries; that
many county,
and municipal
and state law-enforcement agencies
often do not, by themselves,
have sufficient resources in personnel, equipment and particular
areas of expertise to adequately prevent or detect those crimes or
criminal activities which cross
such the county,
and municipal
and
state boundaries; that it is in the best interest of the citizens
of this
state and other states for law-enforcement agencies to
share resources and to provide mutual assistance to each other; and
that, therefore, the Legislature finds and declares that the
various law-enforcement agencies within
and without the state
should be permitted and empowered to share resources and provide
mutual assistance for the prevention and detection of crime.
§15-10-3. Definitions.
In this article, unless a different meaning plainly is
required:
(1) "Criminal justice enforcement personnel" means those
persons within
the a state criminal justice system who are actually
employed as members of the
division of public safety West Virginia
state police, members of any state police or highway patrol,
members of the division of protective services, state conservation
officers, chiefs of police and police of incorporated
municipalities, and county sheriffs and their deputies, and whose
primary duties are the investigation of crime and the apprehension
of criminals.
(2) "Head of a law-enforcement agency" means the
superintendent of the
division of public safety West Virginia state
police or any equivalent administrative head of any state police or
highway patrol agency or his or her designee, the director of the
division of protective services, the chief conservation officer of
the division of natural resources, a chief of police of an
incorporated municipality or a county sheriff.
§15-10-4. Cooperation between law-enforcement agencies.
(a) The head of any law-enforcement agency as defined in
section three of this article may temporarily provide assistance
and cooperation to another agency of the state criminal justice
system or to
a any state or federal law-enforcement agency in
investigating crimes or possible criminal activity if requested to
do so in writing by the head of another law-enforcement agency,
state or federal law-enforcement agency.
Such Assistance may also
be provided upon the request of the head of the law-enforcement
agency,
state or federal law-enforcement agency without first being
reduced to writing in emergency situations involving the imminent
risk of loss of life or serious bodily injury. The assistance may
include, but is not limited to, entering into a multijurisdictional
task force agreement to integrate federal, state, county and
municipal law-enforcement agencies or any combination thereof, for
the purpose of enhancing interagency coordination, intelligence
gathering, facilitating multijurisdictional investigations,
providing criminal justice enforcement personnel of the law-enforcement agency to work temporarily with personnel of
another agency, including in an undercover capacity, and making
available equipment, training, technical assistance and information
systems for the more efficient investigation, apprehension and
adjudication of persons who violate the criminal laws of this state
or the United States, and to assist the victims of
such these
crimes. When providing the assistance under the provisions of this
article, a head of a law-enforcement agency shall comply with all
applicable statutes, ordinances, rules, policies or guidelines
officially adopted by the state or the governing body of the city
or county by which he
or she is employed, and any conditions or
restrictions included therein.
(b) While temporarily assigned to work with another
law-enforcement agency or agencies, criminal justice enforcement
personnel shall have the same jurisdiction, powers, privileges and
immunities, including those relating to the defense of civil
actions, as
such the criminal justice enforcement personnel would
enjoy if actually employed by the agency to which they are
assigned, in addition to any corresponding or varying jurisdiction,
powers, privileges and immunities conferred by virtue of their
continued employment with the assisting agency.
(c) While assigned to another agency or to a
multijurisdictional task force, criminal justice enforcement
personnel shall be subject to the lawful operational commands of
the superior officers of the agency or task force to which they are assigned, but for personnel and administrative purposes, including
compensation, they shall remain under the control of the assisting
agency. These assigned personnel shall continue to be covered by
all employee rights and benefits provided by the assisting agency,
including workers' compensation, to the same extent as though
such
the personnel were functioning within the normal scope of their
duties.
(d) No request or agreement between the heads of
law-enforcement agencies made or entered into pursuant to the
provisions of this article shall remain in force and effect for a
period of more than twelve months unless renewed in writing by the
parties thereto nor shall any request or agreement made or entered
into pursuant to the provisions of this article have force or
effect until a copy of said request or agreement is filed with the
office of the circuit clerk of the county or counties in which the
law-enforcement agencies involved operate. Upon filing, the
requests or agreements may be sealed, subject to disclosure
pursuant to an order of a circuit court directing disclosure for
good cause. Nothing in this article shall be construed to limit
the authority of the head of a law-enforcement agency to withdraw
from any agreement at any time.
(e) Nothing contained in this article shall be construed so as
to grant, increase, decrease or in any manner affect the civil
service protection or the applicability of civil service laws as to
any criminal justice enforcement personnel or agency operating under the authority of this article, nor shall this article in any
way reduce or increase the jurisdiction or authority of any
criminal justice enforcement personnel or agency, except as
specifically provided herein.
(f) Nothing contained in this article shall be construed so as
to authorize the permanent consolidation or merger or the
elimination of operations of participating federal, state, county
or municipal law-enforcement agencies.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide a mechanism in
which any state police or highway patrol may enter into mutual
assistance agreements with the West Virginia state police and with
other state law-enforcement agencies in order to share resources,
equipment, training, technical assistance, and information systems.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.
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