SB 351 Text

COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 351
(By Senators Foster, Jenkins, Prezioso, Yost, Unger, Kessler, Stollings, Plymale and Palumbo)
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[Originating in the Committee on the Judiciary;
reported February 11, 2010.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §30-29-3 and §30-29-10 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, all relating to mandatory antiracial profiling training for certain law-enforcement officers; establishing standards, procedures and time line for mandatory antiracial profile training for law-enforcement officers; establishing procedures and timeline for implementing an antiracial profile training module; and providing the Governor's Committee on Crime, Delinquency and Correction with certain emergency rule-making ability.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §30-29-3 and §30-29-10 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.
§30-29-3. Duties of the Governor's committee and the subcommittee.
Upon recommendation of the subcommittee, the Governor's committee shall, by or pursuant to rules proposed for legislative approval in accordance with article three, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code ~~or regulation~~:
(a) Provide funding for the establishment and support of law- enforcement training academies in the state;
(b) Establish standards governing the establishment and operation of the law-enforcement training academies, including regional locations throughout the state, in order to provide access to each law-enforcement agency in the state in accordance with available funds;
(c) Establish minimum law-enforcement instructor qualifications;
(d) Certify qualified law-enforcement instructors;
(e) Maintain a list of approved law-enforcement instructors;
(f) Promulgate standards governing the qualification of law- enforcement officers and the entry-level law-enforcement training curricula. These standards shall require satisfactory completion of a minimum of four hundred classroom hours, shall provide for credit to be given for relevant classroom hours earned pursuant to training other than training at an established law-enforcement training academy if earned within five years immediately preceding the date of application for certification, and shall provide that the required classroom hours can be accumulated on the basis of a part-time curricula spanning no more than twelve months, or a full- time curricula;
(g) Establish standards governing in-service law-enforcement officer training curricula and in-service supervisory level training curricula;
(h) Certify qualified anti-racial profiling training courses or modules;
(i) Establish standards governing mandatory training to prevent racial profiling, as defined in section ten of this article, for entry level training curricula and for law-enforcement officers who have not received anti-racial profiling training certified by the Governor's committee as required in this section;
(j) Establish, no later than July 1, 2011, procedures for implementation of an anti-racial training module to be available on the internet or otherwise to all law-enforcement officers, the content to be included in the training module, the frequency in which a law-enforcement officer must receive training in anti-racial profiling, and a time frame for which all law-enforcement officers must receive certified anti-racial profiling training, through a training module or other certified course: Provided, That all law- enforcement officers in this state shall receive anti-racial profiling training no later than July 1, 2012. In order to implement and carry out the intent of this section, the Governor's committee may promulgate emergency rules pursuant to section fifteen, article three, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code;
~~(i)~~ (k) Certify law-enforcement officers, as provided in section five of this article;
~~(j)~~ (l) Seek supplemental funding for law-enforcement training academies from sources other than the fees collected pursuant to section four of this article;
~~(k)~~ (m) Any responsibilities and duties as the Legislature may, from time to time, see fit to direct to the committee; and
~~(l)~~ (n) Submit, on or before September 30 of each year, to the Governor, and upon request to individual members of the Legislature, a report on its activities during the previous year and an accounting of funds paid into and disbursed from the special revenue account establish pursuant to section four of this article.
§30-29-10. Prohibition of racial profiling.
(a) The Legislature finds that the use by a law-enforcement officer of race, ethnicity, or national origin in deciding which persons should be subject to traffic stops, stops and frisks, questioning, searches, and seizures is a problematic law-enforcement tactic. The reality or public perception of racial profiling alienates people from police, hinders community policing efforts, and causes law-enforcement officers and law-enforcement agencies to lose credibility and trust among the people law-enforcement is sworn to protect and serve. Therefore, the West Virginia Legislature declares that racial profiling is contrary to public policy and should not be used as a law-enforcement investigative tactic.
(b) For purposes of this section:
(1) The term "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.
(2) The term "municipality" means any incorporated town or city whose boundaries lie within the geographic boundaries of the state.
(3) The term "racial profiling" means the practice of a law- enforcement officer relying, to any degree, on race, ethnicity, or national origin in selecting which individuals to subject to routine investigatory activities, or in deciding upon the scope and substance of law-enforcement activity following the initial routine investigatory activity. Racial profiling does not include reliance on race, ethnicity, or national origin in combination with other identifying factors when the law-enforcement officer is seeking to apprehend a specific suspect whose race, ethnicity, or national origin is part of the description of the suspect.
(4) The term "state and local law-enforcement agencies" 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.
(c) No law-enforcement officer shall engage in racial profiling.
(d) All state and local law-enforcement agencies shall establish and maintain policies and procedures designed to eliminate racial profiling. Policies and procedures shall include the following:
(1) A prohibition on racial profiling;
(2) Independent procedures for receiving, investigating, and responding to complaints alleging racial profiling by law-enforcement officers;
(3) Procedures to discipline law-enforcement officers who engage in racial profiling;
(4) Procedures to insure the inclusion of anti-racial profiling training in new officer training and to law-enforcement officers who have not received anti-racial profiling training certified by the Governor's committee ; and
~~(4)~~ (5) Any other policies and procedures deemed necessary by state and local law-enforcement agencies to eliminate racial profiling.

NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide anti-racial profiling training for certain law-enforcement officers.

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.

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