Senate Bill No. 53

(By Senator Wooton)

____________

[Introduced February 12, 1993; referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary.]

____________




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.