Bill > S84

Introduced Session

Current law does not address when an entry level law enforcement examination will be held, but the Civil Service Commission has maintained a practice of administering such examinations once every three years. This bill permits a county or municipal police department to request an entrance level law enforcement examination in order to fill a vacancy. The examination will be held no later than ten business days from receipt of the request for the examination. In addition, the names of persons who receive a passing score will be consolidated with the most recent eligible list for such title. This bill would allow a county to establish a hiring preference for county residents for county police officer positions. Current law allows municipal police departments to have a hiring preference for municipal residents, but does not authorize the same with respect to county police departments. This bill would enable county police departments to prioritize county residents when hiring new officers, which would allow county police forces to be more reflective of the communities they serve. As is provided with respect to municipal police departments, this bill maintains veterans' preferences that are provided by law and provides a secondary preference for the children of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty. These preferences would apply within each residence classification. Under this bill, if an appointing authority makes an appointment from an entry-level law enforcement eligible list certified by the Civil Service Commission, the commission will remove the name of the person appointed from the eligible list for all entry-level law enforcement positions. Under current law, once an individual is hired to an entry-level law enforcement positon, the individual's name is not removed from any eligible list for other law enforcement positions. Although now employed and trained by a department, the individual's name remains on the eligible list for other departments. This bill will prevent an individual from accepting a position with the first available department, receiving training at the expense of that department, and then accepting a position with another department that individual deems more favorable for geographic or financial reasons. The bill will help prevent a department from losing the benefit of a trained individual and the added expense of training another individual. This bill would expand the training reimbursement amount and time period that applies to certain law enforcement agencies that hire new law enforcement officers. This bill would help further discourage the practice of hiring away new law enforcement officers from other agencies that have invested the time and resources into recruiting and training them. Under current law, whenever a county or municipal law enforcement officer is hired by a different county or municipal law enforcement agency, an educational institution's police department, a State law enforcement agency, or the New Jersey Transit Police Department within 30 days of holding a permanent appointment, the hiring agency is required to reimburse the former employer 100 percent of the examination, hiring, and training costs it bore. If one of those agencies hires a county or municipal law enforcement officer within two years, but more than 30 days, of holding a permanent appointment, the appointing agency is required to reimburse the former employer 50 percent of the examination, hiring, and training costs. These same reimbursement timeframes and amounts apply when a municipality hires a Class Two special law enforcement officer from another municipality. For these law enforcement hires, the bill would increase the time period during which a reimbursement is required to two years, and would increase the amount of the reimbursement to 150 percent of the examination, hiring, and training costs.

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Nilsa Cruz-Perez (D)*, 

Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate State Government, Wagering, Tourism & Historic Preservation Committee (on 01/09/2024)

Official Document