HB1673: Law-Enforcement Officers Procedural Guarantee Act; includes certain deputy sheriffs under coverage.

HOUSE BILL NO. 1673
Offered January 14, 2009
Prefiled December 22, 2008
A BILL to amend and reenact 9.1-500 of the Code of Virginia, relating to the Law-Enforcement Officers Procedural Guarantee Act; definition of law-enforcement officer.
Patron-- Poisson

Committee Referral Pending

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That 9.1-500 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:

9.1-500. Definitions.

As used in this chapter, unless the context requires a different meaning:

"Agency" means the Department of State Police, the Division of Capitol Police, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, the Virginia Port Authority, the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, the Department of Conservation and Recreation, or the Department of Motor Vehicles; a sheriffs department; or the political subdivision or the campus police department of any public institution of higher education of the Commonwealth employing the law-enforcement officer.

"Law-enforcement officer" means any person, other than a Chief of Police, Sheriff, or the Superintendent of the Department of State Police, who, in his official capacity, is (i) authorized by law to make arrests and (ii) a nonprobationary officer of one of the following agencies:

a. The Department of State Police, the Division of Capitol Police, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, the Virginia Port Authority, the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, the Department of Motor Vehicles, or the Department of Conservation and Recreation;

b. The police department, bureau or force, or the sheriffs department of any political subdivision or the campus police department of any public institution of higher education of the Commonwealth where such department, bureau or force has ten or more law-enforcement officers; or

c. Any conservation police officer as defined in 9.1-101.

For the purposes of this chapter, "law-enforcement officer" shall not include an employee of the sheriff's department of any city or county who has the authority to hire, suspend, lay off, promote, discharge, award, or discipline other law-enforcement officers within the sheriff's department, if such authority is not clerical in nature and requires the use of independent judgment.