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2016 SESSION

16101056D
SENATE BILL NO. 378
Offered January 13, 2016
Prefiled January 11, 2016
A BILL to allow the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation to establish a private police department.
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Patron-- Vogel
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Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice
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Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. § 1. The Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation (the Foundation) may establish a police department with the authority to exercise full law-enforcement powers upon all facilities and property owned, operated, managed, leased, or maintained by or under the control of the Foundation and, if approved by the local sheriff or chief of police, as appropriate, any contiguous property, and may employ police officers to enforce laws of the Commonwealth and all rules and regulations of the Foundation and all other applicable statutes, ordinances, rules, and regulations on such facilities and property. The Foundation police department shall have concurrent jurisdiction with the Frederick County Sheriff's Department, the Warren County Sheriff's Department, the Shenandoah County Sheriff's Department, the New Market Police Department, the Rockingham County Sheriff's Department, and the Highland County Sheriff's Department, as appropriate, and shall have concurrent jurisdiction with the Virginia State Police. The authority of the Foundation police department shall not supersede the authority, duties, or jurisdiction vested by law with the local police department or sheriff's office, including as provided in §§ 15.2-1609 and 15.2-1704 of the Code of Virginia. The Foundation police department and its police officers shall be subject to and comply with the United States Constitution; the Constitution of Virginia; the laws governing municipal police departments, including the provisions of §§ 9.1-600, 15.2-1705 through 15.2-1708, 15.2-1719, 15.2-1721, and 15.2-1722 of the Code of Virginia; and any regulations adopted by the Criminal Justice Services Board that the Department of Criminal Justice Services designates as applicable to private police departments. Any person employed as a police officer for the Foundation police department pursuant to this act shall meet all requirements, including the minimum compulsory training requirements, for law-enforcement officers pursuant to Chapter 1 (§ 9.1-100 et seq.) of Title 9.1 of the Code of Virginia. The Foundation police department may use the word "police" to describe its sworn officers and may join a regional criminal justice academy created pursuant to Article 5 (§ 15.2-1747 et seq.) of Chapter 17 of Title 15.2 of the Code of Virginia.