Senate Bill No. 70
(By Senator Jenkins)
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[Introduced January 9, 2008; referred 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 §62-1-1a, relating to
the temporary detention of criminal suspects by
law-enforcement officers to inquire on commission of a crime
where probable cause appears to exist.
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 §62-1-1a, to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 1. PRELIMINARY PROCEDURE.
§62-1-1a. Temporary detention by law-enforcement officer of person
suspected of criminal behavior or violating conditions
of parole or probation; limitations.
(a) Whenever any law-enforcement officer of this state
encounters any person under circumstances which reasonably indicate that the person has committed, is committing, or is about to commit
a violation of the criminal laws of this state or the criminal
ordinances of any municipality, the officer may temporarily detain
the person for the purpose of ascertaining the person's identity
and the circumstances surrounding the person's presence in the
place which led the officer to believe that the person had
committed, was committing or was about to commit a criminal
offense.
(b) No person may be temporarily detained under the provisions
of subsection (a) of this section longer than is reasonably
necessary to effect the purposes of that subsection. The temporary
detention may not:
(1) Extend beyond the place where it was first effected or its
immediate vicinity; or
(2) Last more than six hours.
(c) If at any time after the onset of the temporary detention
authorized by subsection (a) of this section, probable cause for
arrest of the person appears, the person shall be arrested. If,
after an inquiry into the circumstances which prompted the
temporary detention, no probable cause for the arrest of the person
appears, the person shall be released.
(d) Whenever any law-enforcement officer authorized to detain
temporarily any person under the provisions of subsection (a) of
this section has probable cause to believe that any person whom the officer has temporarily detained, or is about to detain
temporarily, is armed with a dangerous weapon and therefore offers
a threat to the safety of the officer or any other person, the
officer may search the person, but only to the extent necessary to
disclose, and for the purpose of disclosing, the presence of a
weapon. If the search discloses a weapon or any evidence of a
criminal offense, it may be seized.
(e) No evidence seized by a law-enforcement officer in any
search under this section is admissible against any person in any
court of this state or political subdivision thereof unless the
search which disclosed its existence was authorized by and
conducted in compliance with the provisions of this section.
NOTE:
The purpose of this bill is to allow the temporary
detention of criminal suspects by law-enforcement officers to
inquire on commission of a crime where probable cause appears to
exist.
This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.