General Assembly>Division of Legislative Services>Publications>Session Summaries>2006>Commonwealth Public Safety

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Commonwealth Public Safety

Passed

P HB208

Fire Services Board; payment of per diem. Provides that members of the Fire Services Board shall receive compensation for the performance of their duties. Funding for the compensation and costs of expenses of the members is to be provided from the Fire Programs Fund established pursuant to § 38.2-401.
Patron - Cox

P HB255

Line of Duty Act; mandatory training. Requires the Secretary of Public Safety to develop training guidelines to be distributed to agencies and localities with employees covered by the Line of Duty Act. Each agency or locality shall be required to provide training concerning the Act to its eligible law-enforcement and public safety officers. The training will not count towards in-service credit requirements for law-enforcement officers.
Patron - Cosgrove

P HB848

Department of Forensic Science; powers and duties. Shifts certain powers and duties from the Forensic Science Board to the Department of Forensic Science, including the receipt, administration and use of funds. This bill is identical to SB 563.
Patron - Albo

P HB1036

Campus safety. Requires the Department of Criminal Justice Services to develop training standards for campus security officers and to provide technical support and assistance to campus police departments and campus security departments. The bill has an effective date of July 1, 2007. This bill incorporates HB 154.
Patron - Hamilton

P HB1333

Sex Offender Registry; penalties. Adds first offense child pornography possession and burglary with the intent to commit certain felony sex offenses as new Registry offenses if committed after July 1, 2006. Criminal homicide in conjunction with contributing to the delinquency of a child or child abuse is also added as a new Registry offense. The bill modifies the registration of a person convicted of murdering a child so that registration will be required if the victim is under 15 years of age and if the minor victim is 15 or older and the murder is related to a registrable sex offense. The bill adds burglary to the list of offenses, if committed twice, that are deemed sexually violent offenses. The bill places murder on an equal footing with sexually violent offenses for purposes of registration. Persons convicted of sex offenses in a foreign country will be required to register. The bill makes a second or subsequent conviction for failing to register as a sex offender a Class 6 felony and a second or subsequent conviction of failing to register as a violent sex offender a Class 5 felony.
Patron - Bell

P HB1409

Domestic violence victim fund; name change; funding. Changes the name of the fund to Sexual & Domestic Violence Victim Fund.
Patron - Crockett-Stark

P HB1417

Confidentiality of presentencing investigation reports. Provides that presentencing investigation reports compiled by local probation officers for general district courts are to remain confidential and are exempt from the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (§ 2.2-3700 et seq.).
Patron - Brink

P HB1418

Line of Duty Act; payment of benefits. Increases from $75,000 to $100,000 the amount for which a beneficiary of a deceased person whose death occurred while in the line of duty as the direct or proximate result of the performance of his duty is eligible to receive.
Patron - Suit

P HB1579

Volunteer Firefighters' and Rescue Squad Workers' Service Award Fund Board; membership. Amends the membership of the Volunteer Firefighters' and Rescue Squad Workers' Service Award Fund Board to include two members of the House of Delegates, to be appointed by the Speaker of the House, and one member of the Senate, to be appointed by the Senate Committee on Rules. This changes the membership of the Board from seven members to 10 members.
Patron - Cline

P SB515

Line of Duty Act; disabled state employees. Extends the Act's benefits to any state public safety employee whose disability occurred on or after January 1, 1966.
Patron - Puckett

P SB560

P SB563

Failed

F HB592

Law-enforcement officers; language programs. Requires the Department of Criminal Justice Services to advise and assist law-enforcement agencies in developing programs and incentives to encourage law-enforcement officers to learn languages in addition to English, including allocating funds for such programs and incentives.
Patron - Lohr

F HB703

Payment for bailee recovery. Provides that when a bailee is recovered by a law-enforcement agency, the bail bondsman who posted bond shall reimburse the law-enforcement agency for the costs of recovery.
Patron - Hogan

F HB777

Law-Enforcement Officers Procedural Guarantee Act. Makes several changes as to the process and procedures afforded to officers under the procedural guarantee act, clarifying several existing rights and setting forth specific procedures for the questioning of officers and the conduct of a disciplinary hearing.
Patron - Albo

F HB799

Sex Offender Registry; automatic notification. Requires the State Police to notify any school or child-care facility of the registration or reregistration of a sex offender within a 10-mile radius of the facility or school. The Department of Social Services and the Department of Education shall provide the State Police with a list of the locations of all such facilities and schools. The notification will be made via electronic means, unless the facility or school does not have capabilities to receive electronic notification and registers to receive written notification. This bill was incorporated into HB 984.
Patron - Fralin

F HB985

Sex Offender and Crimes Against Minors Registry; offenses requiring registration. Requires a person who is convicted of criminal homicide in conjunction with causing or encouraging acts rendering children delinquent or abused or abusing and neglecting children to register with the Sex Offender and Crimes Against Minors Registry. The registration will only be required if the offenses arise out of the same incident. This bill was incorporated into HB 984.
Patron - Sherwood

F HB991

Revocation of probation or parole of registered sex offenders who fail to reregister. Provides that the court shall revoke the probation or parole, as applicable, of any person convicted of failing to register or reregister as a sex offender. This bill was incorporated into HB 984.
Patron - Shannon

F HB1012

Sex offender registration. Adds to the list of those offenses requiring registration as a sex offender use of a communications system, including a computer or computer network, to engage a juvenile in a sex offense. The bill also redefines sexually violent offense to include a first offense of production of child pornography rather than a second or subsequent offense thereof, as is current law. This bill was incorporated into HB 984.
Patron - Hurt

F HB1181

Department of Criminal Justice Services; canine unit certification. Requires the Department of Criminal Justice Services to certify all canine units used by law-enforcement agencies in the Commonwealth. The bill sets forth procedures for certifying canine units for narcotics detection, explosives detection, and patrol.
Patron - Carrico

F HB1264

Reregistration of sex offenders; penalty. Requires sex offender registrants to reregister in person with the local law-enforcement agency annually on June 15 and, if violent sex offenders, quarterly on September 15, December 15, March 15, and June 15. Currently, the requirements are "annually" and "every 90 days," respectively, registration in person is not required, and is done with the State Police. This bill was incorporated into HB 984.
Patron - Janis

F HB1441

Public safety; definition of law-enforcement officer. Includes within the definition any investigator of the Department of Corrections who is designated by the Director of the Department to have police power.
Patron - Landes

F SB211

Crisis intervention pilot programs for persons with mental illness. Permits the Department of Criminal Justice Services to establish crisis intervention team pilot programs in up to six areas of the state by January 1, 2007. The crisis intervention pilot programs shall assist law-enforcement officers to respond to crisis situations involving persons with mental illness, substance abuse, or both. By November 1, 2006, the Department shall submit to the Joint Commission on Health Care a report outlining the plan for the program. The Department, in consultation with the Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services, shall establish a training program for all persons involved in the crisis intervention team pilot programs. Each crisis intervention team shall develop a protocol that permits law-enforcement officers to release from custody persons whom they encounter in crisis situations when the crisis intervention team has determined the person is sufficiently stable. The Department shall evaluate and report annually to the Joint Commission on Health Care on the impact and effectiveness of the crisis intervention team pilot programs.
Patron - Edwards

F SB316

Sex Offender and Crimes Against Minors Registry; penalties. Makes numerous changes to Registry provisions. First offense child pornography possession and burglary with the intent to commit certain felony sex offenses will be new Registry offenses if committed after July 1, 2006. The sex offender website will include persons convicted of all registrable sex offenses committed after July 1, 2006, not just persons convicted of violent sex offenses as under current law. The bill modifies the registration of a person convicted of murdering a child; registration will be required if the victim is under 15 years of age and if the minor victim is 15 or older and the murder is related to a registrable offense. Persons convicted in a foreign country will be required to register. Sex offenders will have three days to register or reregister after an address change rather than 10 and have to reregister for any employment change. Sex offenders moving into the Commonwealth will have three days to register instead of 10, as will nonresident visitors, workers and college students who are subject to registration requirements. The State Police will be required to physically verify or cause to be physically verified registration information within the first 30 days of the initial registration or change of address and semi-annually each year thereafter. Persons who have to register for murder of a minor will be required to reregister every 90 days, the same as a violent sex offender. In addition, when a sex offender is convicted of failing to register, he will be required to reregister more frequently (violent sex offenders monthly instead of every 90 days and sex offenders 180 days instead of 12 months). The duration of registration for sex offenders who have been convicted of failing to register is extended as they will no longer be permitted to get off of the registry in 10 years from the date of registration, but instead the requirement will be 10 years from the date of their last conviction for failing to register. In addition, murder of a minor will require lifetime registration. Sex offenders convicted of failing to register will no longer be permitted to petition for relief for three years from the date of registration, but can petition five years from the date of their last conviction for failure to register. The bill makes a second or subsequent conviction for failing to register as a sex offender a Class 6 felony and requires GPS monitoring and makes a second or subsequent conviction of failing to register as a violent sex offender or murderer a Class 5 felony and requires mandatory GPS monitoring. Procedures to be used by correctional institutions and juvenile facilities to obtain registration information from sex offenders under their custody are made more comprehensive, and faster timelines for transmission of information to the State Police are added. An offender will be required to submit to having a DNA sample taken (if not already taken) and to being photographed by a law-enforcement agency every two years. Failure to register is added to the offenses for which conviction bars loitering within 100 feet of a school. Persons convicted of such offenses after July 1, 2006, will also be prohibited from loitering within 100 feet of a child day program. Persons convicted of certain sex offenses will be prohibited from working on the grounds of a school or day care center and will be prohibited from residing within 500 feet of a school or day care center. Local school boards are required to ensure that schools within the division are registered to receive electronic notice of sex offenders within that school division and to develop and implement policies to provide information to parents regarding registration of sex offenders and the availability of information on the Registry. Public and private two- and four-year institutions of higher education are required to electronically transmit enrollment information to the State Police for comparison with the Virginia Criminal Information Network and National Crime Information Center Convicted Sexual Offender Registry. The Department of Motor Vehicles is required to electronically transmit application information and change of address information for the same purpose. The bill makes it a Class 4 felony to provide false information to obtain a driver's license with the intent to use it as proof of residency for sex offender registration purposes. The bill also exempts the provisions of the Registry from the Freedom of Information Act and the Government Data Collection and Dissemination Practice Act and the Virginia Information Technologies Agency. The Department of Criminal Justice Services is required to advise and initiate training standards for criminal justice agencies and state, local and regional employees who work with the Registry. This bill was incorporated into SB 559.
Patron - Howell

F SB320

Sex Offender and Crimes Against Minors Registry; penalties. Requires all sex offenders to reregister every 90 days. Under current law only violent sex offenders register every 90 days, and others register once per year. The bill further requires that anyone who is required to register, not just those incarcerated for a registrable offense, must register prior to release from jail or prison and requires that the State Police be notified of the registration on or before the date of the prisoner's discharge rather than within seven days as under current law. This bill was incorporated into SB 559.
Patron - Deeds

F SB350

F SB375

Sex offender registration. Adds to the list of offenses for which registration is required the use of a communications system to facilitate taking indecent liberties with children where, during an undercover investigation, a law-enforcement officer represents that he is under the age of 18. This bill was incorporated into SB 559.
Patron - McDougle

F SB622

Department of Criminal Justice Services; use of private security business fees. Clarifies that the licensing, certification, and registration fees charged by the Department of Criminal Justice services to private security services businesses may only be used for the purposes set forth in Article 4 (§ 9.1-138 et seq.) of Chapter 1 of Title 9.1 of the Code of Virginia.
Patron - Martin

F SB636

Line of Duty Act. Creates the Line of Duty Disability Fund and funds it by imposing an additional $50 cost for certain traffic violations. The Fund is to be used to pay the costs of continued health benefits coverage provided to employees and their families under the Line of Duty Act (the Act). The bill also provides that any local employee who meets the definition of a deceased or disabled person under the Act who was disabled on or after January 1, 1972, not otherwise already receiving the continued health insurance coverage benefit under this section, shall be entitled to the continued health insurance coverage benefit beginning July 1, 2006. This bill was incorporated into SB 393.
Patron - Quayle

F SB657

Overtime compensation for state law-enforcement employees. Clarifies that the current overtime compensation provisions for law-enforcement employees applies to state law-enforcement employees.
Patron - Cuccinelli

Carried Over

C HB1336

Law-enforcement officers; training related to sexual assault cases. Requires that officers receive training related to sexual assault and sets forth minimum guidelines for what such training must include.
Patron - Bell

C HB1387

C SB697

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General Assembly>Division of Legislative Services>Publications>Session Summaries>2006>Commonwealth Public Safety

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