Senate Bill No. 53
(By Senator Wooton)
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[Introduced February 12, 1993; referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend chapter fifteen of the code of West Virginia, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, by adding
thereto a new article, designated article ten, relating to
law enforcement; cooperation between federal, state,
municipal and county law-enforcement agencies; providing for
mutual assistance in law enforcement among certain law-
enforcement agencies; and providing for the integration of
law-enforcement agencies to function on a
multijurisdictional basis.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That chapter fifteen of the code of West Virginia, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended by
adding thereto a new article, designated article ten, to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 10. COOPERATION BETWEEN LAW-ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES.
§15-10-1. Short title.
This article shall be known as the "West Virginia Law-
Enforcement Mutual Assistance Act".
§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 municipal and county
boundaries, affecting the citizenry of this state and making
difficult the tasks of detecting, preventing and prosecuting
crime by law-enforcement agencies due to restrictions imposed by
municipal and county boundaries; that many county and municipal
law-enforcement agencies do not, by themselves, have sufficient
resources in personnel, equipment and particular areas of
expertise to adequately detect, prevent and prosecute those
crimes or criminal activity which cross such municipal and county
boundaries; that it is in the best interest of the citizens of
this state 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 the state should be permitted and empowered to
share resources and provide mutual assistance for the prevention,
detection and prosecution of crime among themselves.
§15-10-3. Definitions.
In this article, unless a different meaning plainly is
required:
(1) "Criminal justice enforcement personnel" means those
persons within the state criminal justice system who are actually
employed as members of the division of public safety, chiefs of
police and police of an incorporated municipality, or sheriffsand 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, a chief of
police of an incorporated municipality, or a sheriff.
(3) "State criminal justice system" means and includes all
governmental activity within this state pertaining to the
prevention, control, or reduction of crime, or the enforcement of
the criminal law, including, but not limited to, police efforts
to prevent, control or reduce crime or to apprehend criminals,
including juveniles, activities of courts having criminal
jurisdiction and related agencies (including, but not limited to,
prosecutorial and defender services, juvenile delinquency
agencies and pretrial service and release agencies), activities
of corrections, probation or parole authorities and related
agencies assisting in the rehabilitation, supervision, and care
of criminal offenders and programs relating to the prevention,
control or reduction of drug abuse and juvenile delinquency.
§15-10-4. Cooperation between law-enforcement agencies.
(a) The head of any law-enforcement agency may temporarily
provide assistance to another agency of the state criminal
justice system or to a federal agency in investigating crime and
apprehending criminals, including, but not limited to, entering
into a multijurisdictional task force agreement to integrate
federal, state and local law-enforcement agencies and
prosecutors, for the purpose of enhancing interagencycoordination, intelligence and facilitating multijurisdictional
investigations. The assistance may also include, but is not
limited to, 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 widespread apprehension,
prosecution, adjudication and detention and rehabilitation of
persons who violate the criminal laws and to assist the victims
of such crimes. When providing the assistance under the
provisions of this subsection, 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 is employed, and
any conditions or restrictions included therein.
(b) While temporarily assigned to work with other agencies
of the criminal justice system, criminal justice enforcement
personnel shall have the same jurisdiction, powers, privileges
and immunities (including those relating to the defense of civil
actions) as such 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, criminal justice
enforcement personnel shall be subject to the lawful operationalcommands of the superior officers of the agency 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 personnel were functioning within the
normal scope of their duties.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to allow law-enforcement
agencies at various levels, including federal, state, county and
municipal law-enforcement agencies, to enter into mutual
assistance agreements and to conduct operations on a
multijurisdictional basis.
This is a new article; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.