Senate Bill No. 367
(By Senators Schoonover and Wagner)
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[Introduced February 15, 1995; referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section, four, article ten, chapter
fifteen of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to prohibiting the
use of this article to consolidate law-enforcement agencies.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section four, article ten, chapter fifteen of the code
of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 10. COOPERATION BETWEEN LAW-ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES.
§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 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 or federal
law-enforcement agency. Such assistance may also be provided
upon the request of the head of the law-enforcement agency 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 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
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 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 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.
Nothing in this bill shall be construed to constitute an
authorization for the forming of combined or consolidated
law-enforcement entity involving multiple law-enforcement
agencies.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to prohibit the use of
this article to consolidate law-enforcement agencies.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.