Senate Bill No. 642
(By Senators Boley and Love)
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[Introduced February 19, 2007; referred to the Committee on the
Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §30-29-1 and §30-29-5 of the Code of
West Virginia, 1931, as amended, all relating to modifying the
definition of "law-enforcement officer" to include Public
Service Commission motor carrier inspectors and enforcement
officers; and providing certain certification requirements are
applicable to Public Service Commission motor carrier
inspectors and enforcement officers by the first day of July,
two thousand seven.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §30-29-1 and §30-29-5 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931,
as amended, be amended and reenacted, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 29. LAW-ENFORCEMENT TRAINING AND CERTIFICATION.
§30-29-1. Definitions.
For the purposes of this article, unless a different meaning
clearly appears in the context:
"Approved law-enforcement training academy" means any training
facility which is approved and authorized to conduct
law-enforcement training as provided in this article;
"Chief executive" means the Superintendent of the State
Police; the Chief Conservation Officer of the Division of Natural
Resources; the sheriff of any West Virginia county; any
administrative deputy appointed by the Chief Conservation Officer
of Natural Resources; or the chief of any West Virginia municipal
law-enforcement agency;
"County" means the fifty-five major political subdivisions of
the state;
"Exempt rank" means any noncommissioned or commissioned rank
of sergeant or above;
"Governor's Committee on Crime, Delinquency and Correction" or
"Governor's committee" means the Governor's Committee on Crime,
Delinquency and Correction established as a state planning agency
pursuant to section one, article nine, chapter fifteen of this
code;
"Law-enforcement officer" means any duly authorized member of
a law-enforcement agency who is authorized to maintain public peace
and order, prevent and detect crime, make arrests and enforce the
laws of the state or any county or municipality thereof, other than
parking ordinances,
and those persons employed by the Public
Service Commission as motor carrier inspectors and enforcement
officers charged with enforcing commercial motor vehicle safety and weight restriction laws upon the highways within this state
includes and those persons employed as
campus police
officers at
state institutions of higher education in accordance with the
provisions of section five, article four, chapter eighteen-b of
this code, although those institutions may not be considered
law-enforcement agencies. The term also includes those persons
employed as rangers by the Hatfield-McCoy Regional Recreation
Authority in accordance with the provisions of section six, article
fourteen, chapter twenty of this code, although the authority may
not be considered a law-enforcement agency: Provided, That the
subject rangers shall pay the tuition and costs of training. As
used in this article, the term "law-enforcement officer" does not
apply to the chief executive of any West Virginia law-enforcement
agency or any watchman or special conservation officer;
"Law-enforcement official" means the duly appointed chief
administrator of a designated law-enforcement agency or a duly
authorized designee;
"Municipality" means any incorporated town or city whose
boundaries lie within the geographic boundaries of the state;
"Subcommittee" or "law-enforcement training subcommittee"
means the subcommittee of the Governor's Committee on Crime,
Delinquency and Correction created by section two of this article;
and
"West Virginia law-enforcement agency" means any duly
authorized state, county or municipal organization employing one or more persons whose responsibility is the enforcement of laws of the
state or any county or municipality thereof: Provided, That
neither the Hatfield-McCoy Regional Recreation Authority nor any
state institution of higher education may be deemed a
law-enforcement agency.
§30-29-5. Certification requirements.
(a) Except as provided in subsections (b) and (g) of this
section, no person may be employed as a law-enforcement officer by
any West Virginia law-enforcement agency or by any state
institution of higher education on or after the effective date of
this article unless the person is certified, or is certifiable in
one of the manners specified in subsections (c) through (e),
inclusive, of this section, by the Governor's committee as having
met the minimum entry level law-enforcement qualification and
training program requirements promulgated pursuant to this article.
(b) Except as provided in subsection (g) of this section, a
person who is not certified, or certifiable in one of the manners
specified in subsections (c) through (e), inclusive, of this
section, may be conditionally employed as a law-enforcement officer
until certified: Provided, That within ninety calendar days of the
commencement of employment or the effective date of this article if
the person is already employed on the effective date, he or she
makes a written application to attend an approved law-enforcement
training academy. The person's employer shall provide notice, in
writing, of the ninety-day deadline to file a written application to the academy within thirty calendar days of that person's
commencement of employment. The employer shall provide full
disclosure as to the consequences of failing to file a timely
written application. The academy shall notify the applicant in
writing of the receipt of the application and of the tentative date
of the applicant's enrollment. Any applicant who, as the result of
extenuating circumstances acceptable to his or her law-enforcement
official, is unable to attend the scheduled training program to
which he or she was admitted may reapply and shall be admitted to
the next regularly scheduled training program. An applicant who
satisfactorily completes the program shall, within thirty days of
completion, make written application to the Governor's committee
requesting certification as having met the minimum entry level law-
enforcement qualification and training program requirements. Upon
determining that an applicant has met the requirements for
certification, the Governor's committee shall forward to the
applicant documentation of certification. An applicant who fails
to complete the training program to which he or she is first
admitted, or was admitted upon reapplication, may not be certified
by the Governor's committee: Provided, however, That an applicant
who has completed the minimum training required by the Governor's
committee may be certified as a law-enforcement officer,
notwithstanding the applicant's failure to complete additional
training hours required in the training program to which he or she
originally applied.
(c) Any person who is employed as a law-enforcement officer on
the effective date of this article and is a graduate of the West
Virginia basic police training course, the West Virginia State
Police cadet training program or other approved law-enforcement
training academy is certifiable as having met the minimum entry
level law-enforcement training program requirements and is exempt
from the requirement of attending a law-enforcement training
academy. To receive certification, the person shall make written
application within ninety calendar days of the effective date of
this article to the Governor's committee requesting certification.
The Governor's committee shall review the applicant's relevant
scholastic records and, upon determining that the applicant has met
the requirements for certification, shall forward to the applicant
documentation of certification.
(d) Any person who is employed as a law-enforcement officer on
the effective date of this article and is not a graduate of the
West Virginia basic police training course, the West Virginia State
Police cadet training program or other approved law-enforcement
training academy is certifiable as having met the minimum entry
level law-enforcement training program requirements and is exempt
from the requirement of attending a law-enforcement training
academy if the person has been employed as a law-enforcement
officer for a period of not less than five consecutive years
immediately preceding the date of application for certification. To
receive certification, the person shall make written application within ninety calendar days following the effective date of this
article to the Governor's committee requesting certification. The
application shall include notarized statements as to the
applicant's years of employment as a law-enforcement officer. The
Governor's committee shall review the application and, upon
determining that the applicant has met the requirements for
certification, shall forward to the applicant documentation of
certification.
(e) Any person who begins employment on or after the effective
date of this article as a law-enforcement officer is certifiable as
having met the minimum entry level law-enforcement training program
requirements and is exempt from attending a law-enforcement
training academy if the person has satisfactorily completed a
course of instruction in law enforcement equivalent to or exceeding
the minimum applicable law-enforcement training curricula
promulgated by the Governor's committee. To receive certification,
the person shall make written application within ninety calendar
days following the commencement of employment to the Governor's
committee requesting certification. The application shall include
a notarized statement of the applicant's satisfactory completion of
the course of instruction in law enforcement, a notarized
transcript of the applicant's relevant scholastic records and a
notarized copy of the curriculum of the completed course of
instruction. The Governor's committee shall review the application
and, if it finds the applicant has met the requirements for certification, shall forward to the applicant documentation of
certification.
(f) Any person who is employed as a law-enforcement officer on
or after the effective date of this article and fails to be
certified shall be automatically terminated and no further
emoluments shall be paid to such officer by his or her employer.
Any person terminated shall be entitled to reapply, as a private
citizen, to the subcommittee for training and certification, and
upon being certified may again be employed as a law-enforcement
officer in this state: Provided, That if a person is terminated
under this subsection because an application was not timely filed
to the academy, and the person's employer failed to provide notice
or disclosure to that person as set forth in subsection (b) of this
section, the employer shall pay the full cost of attending the
academy if the person's application to the subcommittee as a
private citizen is subsequently approved.
(g) Nothing in this article may be construed as prohibiting
any governing body, civil service commission or chief executive of
any West Virginia law-enforcement agency from requiring their
law-enforcement officers to meet qualifications and satisfactorily
complete a course of law-enforcement instruction which exceeds the
minimum entry level law-enforcement qualification and training
curricula promulgated by the Governor's committee.
(h) The requirement of this section for qualification,
training and certification of law-enforcement officers shall not be mandatory during the two years next succeeding the effective date
of this article for the law-enforcement officers of a
law-enforcement agency which employs a civil service system for its
law-enforcement personnel, nor shall such provisions be mandatory
during the five years next succeeding the effective date of this
article for law-enforcement officers of a law-enforcement agency
which does not employ a civil service system for its
law-enforcement personnel: Provided, That such requirements shall
be mandatory for all such law-enforcement officers until their
law-enforcement officials apply for their exemption by submitting
a written plan to the Governor's committee which will reasonably
assure compliance of all law-enforcement officers of their agencies
within the applicable two or five-year period of exemption.
(i) Any person aggrieved by a decision of the Governor's
committee made pursuant to this article may contest such decision
in accordance with the provisions of article five, chapter
twenty-nine-a of this code.
(j) Any person terminated from employment for not filing an
application to the law-enforcement training academy within ninety
days after commencing employment as a law-enforcement officer may
appeal the termination to the Governor's committee for
reconsideration on an individual basis.
(k) Beginning the first day of July, two thousand two, until
the thirtieth day of June, two thousand three, any applicant who
has been conditionally employed as a law-enforcement officer who failed to submit a timely application pursuant to the provisions of
this section, may be conditionally employed as a law-enforcement
officer and may resubmit an application pursuant to subsection (b)
of this section to an approved law-enforcement training academy.
If the applicant is accepted, the employer shall pay compensation
to the employee for attendance at the law-enforcement training
academy at the rate provided in section eight of this article.
However, as applied to the Public Service Commission, requirements
of this article shall be effective only to those motor carrier
inspectors and enforcement officers hired after the first day of
July, two thousand seven.
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(NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to modify the definition
of "law-enforcement officer" to include Public Service Commission
motor carrier inspectors and enforcement officers while providing
certain certification requirements are applicable to Public Service
Commission motor carrier inspectors and enforcement officers by the
first day of July, two thousand seven.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.)