PRINTER'S NO. 3009
No. 2278 Session of 1998
INTRODUCED BY PERZEL AND JAROLIN, MARCH 2, 1998
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY, MARCH 2, 1998
AN ACT
1 Authorizing certain officers in the Department of Corrections to
2 perform certain peace officer duties.
3 The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
4 hereby enacts as follows:
5 Section 1. Peace officer duties.
6 All superintendents, deputy superintendents of operation and
7 correction officers of all ranks within the Department of
8 Corrections shall have the authority and may exercise the powers
9 of peace officers in the performance of their duties. Such
10 duties shall include the following:
11 (1) Guarding, protecting and delivering prisoners.
12 (2) Enforcing the laws of this Commonwealth on any
13 property owned or operated under the jurisdiction of the
14 Department of Corrections.
15 (3) Enforcing the laws of this Commonwealth as directed
16 by the Governor.
17 Section 2. Educational program.
1 (a) General rule.--The Department of Corrections and the
2 Pennsylvania State Police shall establish a committee consisting
3 of three persons from each agency to formulate a mandatory basic
4 course of peace officer study, which shall include a minimum of
5 160 hours of classroom study, for the officers identified in
6 section 1. Courses shall begin one year from the date of final
7 enactment of this section.
8 (b) Applicability.--The officers identified in section 1 who
9 are employed prior to the passage of this act shall not be
10 required to take the basic course of study in subsection (a).
11 Those officers employed prior to the passage of this act shall
12 complete 40 hours of appropriate peace officer training as
13 prescribed and administered by the Pennsylvania State Police.
14 Section 3. Effective date.
15 This act shall take effect as follows:
16 (1) Section 1 shall take effect in 60 days.
17 (2) The remainder of this act shall take effect
18 immediately.
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