Senate Bill No. 114

(By Senators Laird, D. Hall and Miller)

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[Introduced January 14, 2015; referred to the Committee on Government Organization; and then to the Committee on the Judiciary.]

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A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated §8-14-3a, relating to requiring municipal law-enforcement officers to wear certain armor vests when feasible; and requiring municipal police chiefs to create policy regarding mandatory use of certain armor vests.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:

            That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new section, designated §8-14-3a, to read as follows:

ARTICLE 14. LAW AND ORDER; POLICE FORCE OR DEPARTMENTS; POWERS, AUTHORITY AND DUTIES OF LAW-ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS AND POLICEMEN; POLICE MATRONS; SPECIAL SCHOOL ZONE AND PARKING LOT OR PARKING BUILDING POLICE OFFICERS; CIVIL SERVICE FOR CERTAIN POLICE DEPARTMENTS.

§8-14-3a. Mandatory armor vest wear policy requirement.

            Every police force or department of a municipality shall adopt a formal policy by January 1, 2016, that requires all law-enforcement officers in their police force or department to wear an armor vest throughout each duty shift whenever feasible. The terms and exemptions of this mandatory wear policy shall be determined by each chief of police in the reasonable exercise of his or her discretion: Provided, That the policy must define an “armor vest” as a vest that has met the performance standards established by the National Law-Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center of the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) as published in NIJ Standard 0101.03, or any formal revision of this standard.

            NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to require West Virginia municipal police officers to wear armor vests whenever feasible.

            §8-14-3a is new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring have been omitted.