PRINTER'S NO. 1745
No. 1423 Session of 1985
INTRODUCED BY SERAFINI, STABACK, GODSHALL, ARTY, SEMMEL, CIMINI
AND SIRIANNI, JUNE 17, 1985
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY, JUNE 17, 1985
AN ACT
1 Amending Title 22 (Detectives and Private Police) of the
2 Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, authorizing the
3 appointment of policemen by private residential communities
4 and public utilities.
5 The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
6 hereby enacts as follows:
7 Section 1. Section 501 of Title 22 of the Pennsylvania
8 Consolidated Statutes is amended to read:
9 § 501. Appointment by [nonprofit] corporations.
10 (a) Appointment authorized.--Any nonprofit corporation, as
11 defined in Part III of Title 15 (relating to corporations not-
12 for-profit) maintaining a cemetery or any buildings or grounds
13 open to the public, or organized for the prevention of cruelty
14 to children or aged persons or animals, or one or more of such
15 purposes, any corporation which operates a private residential
16 community or which exists to provide municipal services to a
17 private residential community and any public utility as defined
18 in Title 66 (relating to public utilities) may apply to the
1 court of common pleas of the county of the registered office of
2 the corporation or utility for the appointment of such persons
3 as the corporation or utility may designate to act as policemen
4 for the corporation. The court, upon such application, may order
5 and decree such persons, or as many of them as it may deem
6 proper and necessary, to be such policemen.
7 (b) Oath of office.--Every policeman so appointed shall,
8 before entering upon the duties of his office, take and
9 subscribe the oath required by the sixth article of the
10 Constitution of Pennsylvania. Such oath, together with the
11 decree and order of the court, shall be recorded by the recorder
12 of deeds of each county in which it is intended that such
13 policemen shall act.
14 (c) Powers.--Such policemen, so appointed, shall severally
15 possess and exercise all the powers of a police officer in this
16 Commonwealth, in and upon, and in the immediate and adjacent
17 vicinity of, the property of the corporation or utility.
18 Policemen so appointed for a corporation organized for the
19 prevention of cruelty to children or aged persons or animals, or
20 one or more of such purposes, shall severally possess and
21 exercise all the powers of a police officer in any county in
22 which they may be directed by the corporation to act, and are
23 hereby authorized to arrest persons for the commission of any
24 offense of cruelty to children or aged persons or animals. The
25 keepers of jails and other places of detention in any county of
26 this Commonwealth shall receive all persons arrested by [such]
27 any policemen appointed under this section for purposes of
28 detention until they are dealt with according to law. Every
29 policeman appointed under this section, when on duty, shall wear
30 a metallic shield with the words "special officer" and the name
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1 of the corporation or utility for which appointed inscribed
2 thereon.
3 (d) Compensation.--The compensation of such policemen shall
4 be paid by the corporation or utility for which the policemen
5 are appointed, as may be agreed upon between the corporation or
6 utility and such policemen.
7 (e) Termination of appointment.--When any corporation or
8 utility shall no longer require the services of any policeman,
9 it shall file a notice to that effect, under its corporate seal,
10 in the office of each recorder of deeds where the court decree
11 and order of appointment of such policeman were recorded. The
12 recorder of deeds shall note this information upon the margin of
13 the record where the court decree and order were recorded, and
14 thereupon the powers of such policeman shall terminate. It shall
15 be the duty of the recorder of deeds to notify the clerk of the
16 court by which such policeman was appointed of the termination
17 of such appointment in such county.
18 Section 2. This act shall take effect in 60 days.
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