Source: http://www.legis.state.wv.us/bill_status/bills_text.cfm?billdoc=hb3110%20ENR.htm&yr=2010&sesstype=RS&i=3110
Timestamp: 2017-08-20 00:28:56
Document Index: 383997696

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Enrolled Version - Final Version House Bill 3110 History
hb3110 ENR
AN ACT to amend and reenact §15-2-12 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended; to amend and reenact §15-10-3 of said code; to amend and reenact §15-10A-2 of said code; to amend and reenact §17-24A-1 and §17-24A-2 of said code; to amend and reenact §17A-3-23 of said code; to amend and reenact §17C-4-16 of said code; to amend and reenact §17C-5-4 of said code; to amend and reenact §18B-10-7 of said code; to amend and reenact §19-20A-7 of said code; to amend and reenact §20-1-13 of said code; to amend and reenact §20-2-5, §20-2-7, §20-2-15, §20-2- 16, §20-2-22, §20-2-22a, §20-2-56a and §20-2-57a of said code; to amend and reenact §20-7-1, §20-7-1a, §20-7-1b, §20-7-1c, §20-7-1d, §20-7-1e, §20-7-1f, §20-7-2, §20-7-3, §20-7-4 and §20-7-12b of said code; to amend and reenact §22-15A-19 of said code; to amend and reenact §29-2A-11a of said code; to amend and reenact §29-3-12 of said code; to amend and reenact §30-29-1 of said code; and to amend and reenact §36-8A-1 of said code, all relating to renaming conservation officers to be natural resources police officers.
That §15-2-12 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended and reenacted; that §15-10-3 of said Code be amended and reenacted; that §15-10A-2 of said code be amended and reenacted; that §17-24A-1 and §17-24A-2 of said code be amended and reenacted; that §17A-3-23 of said code be amended and reenacted; that §17C-4- 16 of said code be amended and reenacted; that §17C-5-4 of said code be amended and reenacted; that §18B-10-7 of said code be amended and reenacted; that §19-20A-7 of said code be amended and reenacted; that §20-1-13 of said code be amended and reenacted; that §20-2-5, §20-2-7, §20-2-15, §20-2-16, §20-2-22, §20-2-22a, §20-2-56a and §20-2-57a of said code be amended and reenacted; that §20-7-1, §20-7-1a, §20-7-1b, §20-7-1c, §20-7-1d, §20-7-1e, §20-7- 1f, §20-7-2, §20-7-3, §20-7-4 and §20-7-12b of said code be amended and reenacted; that §22-15A-19 of said code be amended and reenacted; that §29-2A-11a be amended and reenacted; that §29-3-12 of said code be amended and reenacted; that §30-29-1 of said code be amended and reenacted; and that §36-8A-1 of said code be amended and reenacted , all to read as follows:
(c) Members of the West Virginia State Police are hereby designated as natural resources police officers throughout the state to do and perform any duties and exercise any powers of natural resources police officers, and may apprehend and bring before any court or magistrate having jurisdiction of these matters, anyone violating any of the provisions of chapters twenty, sixty and sixty-one of this code. The West Virginia State Police is at any time subject to the call of the West Virginia Alcohol Beverage Control Commissioner to aid in apprehending any person violating any of the provisions of chapter sixty of this code. They shall serve and execute warrants for the arrest of any person and warrants for the search of any premises issued by any properly constituted authority, and shall exercise all of the powers conferred by law upon a sheriff. They may not serve any civil process or exercise any of the powers of an officer in civil matters.
(h) By the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety-three, the superintendent shall establish a network to implement reports of the disappearance of children by local law-enforcement agencies to local school division superintendents and the State Registrar of Vital Statistics. The network shall be designed to establish cooperative arrangements between local law-enforcement agencies and local school divisions concerning reports of missing children and notices to law-enforcement agencies of requests for copies of the cumulative records and birth certificates of missing children. The network shall also establish a mechanism for reporting the identities of all missing children to the State Registrar of Vital Statistics.
(l) If the State Police or any other law-enforcement agency in this state receives a report that a person who has Alzheimer's disease and related dementia is missing, the State Police or any other law-enforcement agency shall immediately open an investigation for the purpose of determining the whereabouts of that missing person. Any policy of the State Police or any other law-enforcement agency relating to a waiting period prior to initiation of an investigation of a missing person shall not apply in the case of a person who has Alzheimer's disease or other related dementia of the type referred to in this subsection.
(m) Notwithstanding any provision of this code to the contrary, effective on and after the first day of July, two thousand seven, the expenses and salaries paid to the members of the West Virginia State Police for the monitoring and enforcement duties defined in chapter seventeen-c of this code may not be paid from the state road fund or subject to reimbursement from the Division of Motor Vehicles but shall be subject to appropriation by the Legislature.
(1) "Criminal justice enforcement personnel" means those persons within the state criminal justice system who are actually employed as members of the Division of Public Safety, members of the Division of Protective Services, natural resources police officers, chiefs of police and police of incorporated municipalities, and county sheriffs and their deputies, and whose primary duties are the investigation of crime and the apprehension of criminals.
(2) "Head of a law-enforcement agency" means the Superintendent of the Division of Public Safety, the director of the Division of Protective Services, the chief natural resources police officer of the Division of Natural Resources, a chief of police of an incorporated municipality or a county sheriff.
(3) "State or local law-enforcement officer" means any duly authorized member of a law-enforcement agency who is authorized to maintain public peace and order, prevent and detect crime, make arrests and enforce the laws of the state or any county or municipality thereof, other than parking ordinances, and includes those persons employed as campus police officers at state institutions of higher education in accordance with the provisions of section five, article four, chapter eighteen-b of this code, although those institutions may not be considered law-enforcement agencies. The term also includes those persons employed as rangers by the Hatfield-McCoy regional recreation authority in accordance with the provisions of section six, article fourteen, chapter twenty of this code, although the authority may not be considered a law-enforcement agency.
(3) "Abandoned motor vehicle" means any motor vehicle, or major part thereof, which is inoperative and which has been abandoned on public property for any period of time over five days, other than in an enclosed building or in a licensed salvage yard or at the business establishment of a demolisher; or any motor vehicle, or major part thereof, which has remained on private property without consent of the owner or person in control of the property for any period of time over five days; or any motor vehicle, or major part thereof, which is unattended, discarded, deserted and unlicensed and is not in an enclosed building, a licensed salvage yard or the actual possession of a demolisher: Provided, That a motor vehicle, or major part thereof, shall not be considered an abandoned motor vehicle if: (a) The owner of the motor vehicle is storing the motor vehicle on the owner's property; (b) the motor vehicle is being stored for the purpose of using its parts on other motor vehicles owned by the owner; (c) the owner owns other motor vehicles similar to the motor vehicle being stored; and (d) the owner is a business licensed to do business in the state of West Virginia and not in the primary business of offering motor vehicles or parts thereof for sale.
(8) "Junked motor vehicle" means a motor vehicle, or any part thereof which: (a) Is discarded, wrecked, ruined, scrapped or dismantled; (b) cannot pass the state inspection required by article sixteen, chapter seventeen-c of this code; and (c) is either not serving a functional purpose or use or is not in an enclosed building, a licensed salvage yard or the actual possession of a demolisher: Provided, That a motor vehicle, or major part thereof, shall not be considered a junked motor vehicle if: (a) The owner of the motor vehicle is storing the motor vehicle on the owner's property; (b) the motor vehicle is being stored for the purpose of using its parts on other motor vehicles owned by the owner; (c) the owner owns other motor vehicles similar to the motor vehicle being stored; and (d) the owner is a business licensed to do business in the state of West Virginia and not in the primary business of offering motor vehicles or parts thereof for sale. (9) "Licensed salvage yard" means a salvage yard licensed under article twenty-three of this chapter.
(a) No person shall, within this state, abandon a motor vehicle or major part thereof upon the right-of-way of any public highway, upon any other public property or upon any private property without the consent of the owner or person in control of the property, or upon property owned or controlled by that person, unless it be at a licensed salvage yard or at the business establishment of a demolisher, or a business licensed to do business in the state of West Virginia and not in the primary business of offering motor vehicles or parts thereof for sale. Any person who violates any provision of this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be sentenced and fined as set forth below.
(b) No person shall, within this state, place or abandon any inoperative household appliance upon the right-of-way of any public highway or upon any other public property; nor shall any person, within this state, place or abandon any inoperative household appliance upon any private property unless it be at a licensed salvage yard, solid waste facility, other business authorized to accept solid waste or at the business establishment of a demolisher. Any person who violates any provision of this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be sentenced and fined as set forth below.
|17A-3-23. Registration plates to state, county, municipal and other governmental vehicles; use for undercover activities.
(b) On registration plates issued to vehicles owned by counties, the color shall be white on red with the word "County" on top of the plate and the words "West Virginia" on the bottom. On any registration plates issued to a city or municipality, the color shall be white on blue with the word "City" on top and the words "West Virginia" on the bottom: Provided, That after the thirty-first day of December, two thousand six, registration plates issued to a city or municipality law-enforcement department shall include blue lettering on a white background with the word "West Virginia" on top of the plate and shall be further designed by the commissioner to include a law-enforcement shield together with other insignia or lettering sufficient to identify the motor vehicle as a municipal law-enforcement department motor vehicle. The colors may not be reversed and shall be of reflectorized material. The registration plates issued to counties, municipalities and other governmental agencies authorized to receive colored plates hereunder shall be affixed to both the front and rear of the vehicles. Every municipality shall provide the commissioner with a list of law-enforcement vehicles operated by the law-enforcement department of the municipality, unless otherwise provided in this section, and a fee of ten dollars for each vehicle submitted by the first day of July, two thousand six.
(h) The commissioner may issue a maximum of ten Class A license plates to the Division of Natural Resources for use by s natural resources police officers. The commissioner shall designate the color and design of the registration plates to be displayed on the front and the rear of all other state-owned vehicles owned by the Division of Natural Resources and operated by s natural resources police officers.
(n) Any person who violates the provisions of this section is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not less than fifty dollars nor more than one hundred dollars. Magistrates have concurrent jurisdiction with circuit courts for the enforcement of this section.
§17C-4-16. Accidents involving state and municipal property; reports to be provided.
Whenever a report of a motor vehicle accident prepared by a member of the West Virginia State Police, natural resources police officer of the Division of Natural Resources, a member of a county sheriff's department or a municipal police officer, in the regular course of their duties, indicates that as a result of the accident damage has occurred to any bridge, sign, guardrail or other property, exclusive of licensed motor vehicles, a copy of the report shall, in the case of property belonging to the Division of Highways, be provided to the Commissioner of the Division of Highways, and, in the case of property belonging to a municipality, be provided to the mayor of that municipality. The copies of the reports shall be provided to the commissioner or mayor, as applicable, without cost to them.
(a) Any person who drives a motor vehicle in this state is deemed to have given his or her consent by the operation of the motor vehicle to a preliminary breath analysis and a secondary chemical test of either his or her blood, breath or urine for the purposes of determining the alcoholic content of his or her blood.
(f) Any law-enforcement officer who has been properly trained in the administration of any secondary chemical test authorized by this article, including, but not limited to, certification by the Division of Health in the operation of any equipment required for the collection and analysis of a breath sample, may conduct the test at any location in the county wherein the arrest is made: Provided, That the law-enforcement officer may conduct the test at the nearest available properly functioning secondary chemical testing device located outside the county in which the arrest was made, if (i) there is no properly functioning secondary chemical testing device located within the county the arrest was made or (ii) there is no magistrate available within the county the arrest was made for the arraignment of the person arrested. A law-enforcement officer who is directing that a secondary chemical test be conducted has the authority to transport the person arrested to where the secondary chemical testing device is located.
The enforcement of the provisions of this article shall be in the hands of the sheriff of each county, any of his deputies, constables, natural resources police officers, and, if deemed necessary, there shall be a special officer to be appointed by the county commission, who is authorized, empowered, and directed to inspect rabies, pick up dogs and cats and dispose of dogs which are not taxable or not vaccinated according to this article. The sheriff of each county can have one or more sittings, if deemed necessary, in each district of the county, at which he shall be present or have present one of his deputies or the special officer above provided for, to take charge of all delinquent dogs and cats and homeless dogs and cats that are not vaccinated. The assessor of each county, or one of his deputies, shall accompany the veterinarian, doctor, or the one who administers the vaccine in these sittings for the purpose of collecting taxes on dogs. All dogs which are not vaccinated and for which taxes are unpaid shall become the responsibility of the sheriff to catch and dispose of as is provided by law.
20-1-13. Law enforcement and legal services.
The director shall select and designate a competent and qualified person to be the chief natural resources police officer, who shall have the title of colonel and be responsible for the prompt, orderly and effective enforcement of all of the provisions of this chapter. Under the supervision of the director and subject to personnel qualifications and requirements otherwise prescribed in this chapter, the chief natural resources police officer shall be responsible for the selection, training, assignment, distribution and discipline of natural resources police officers and the effective discharge of their duties in carrying out the law-enforcement policies, practices and programs of the division in compliance with the provisions of article seven of this chapter and other controlling laws. Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, natural resources police officers are hereby authorized to enter into and upon private lands and waters to investigate complaints and reports of conditions, conduct, practices and activities considered to be adverse to and violative of the provisions of this chapter and to execute writs and warrants and make arrests thereupon.
The attorney general and his or her assistants and the prosecuting attorneys of the several counties shall render to the director, without additional compensation, the legal services as the director may require of them in the discharge of his or her duties and the execution of his or her powers under and his or her enforcement of the provisions of this chapter. The director, in an emergency and with prior approval of the attorney general, may employ an attorney to act in proceedings wherein criminal charges are brought against personnel of the department because of action in line of duty. For the attorney services, a reasonable sum, not exceeding two thousand five hundred dollars, may be expended by the director in any one case.
(24) Permit any dog owned by him or her or under his or her control to chase, pursue or follow upon the track of any wild animal or wild bird, either day or night, between the first day of May and the fifteenth day of August next following: Provided, That dogs may be trained on wild animals and wild birds, except deer and wild turkeys, and field trials may be held or conducted on the grounds or lands of the owner or by his or her bona fide tenant or tenants or upon the grounds or lands of another person with his or her written permission or on public lands at any time: Provided, however, That nonresidents may not train dogs in this state at any time except during the legal small game hunting season: Provided, further, That the person training said dogs does not have firearms or other implements in his or her possession during the closed season on wild animals and wild birds, whereby wild animals or wild birds could be taken or killed;
(c) The owner, tenant or agent of the owner may arrest a person violating this section and immediately take him or her before a magistrate. The owner, tenant or agent of the owner is vested with the powers and rights of a natural resources police officer for these purposes. The officers charged with the enforcement of the provisions of this chapter shall enforce the provisions of this section if requested to do so by the owner, tenant or agent of the owner, but not otherwise.
(a) Whenever it shall be found that deer or other wildlife are causing damage to cultivated crops, fruit trees, commercial nurseries, homeowners' trees, shrubbery or vegetable gardens, the owner or lessee of the lands on which damage is done may report the finding to the natural resources police officer or biologist of the county in which the lands are located or to the director. The director shall then investigate the reported damage and if found substantial, shall issue a permit to the owner or lessee to kill one or more deer or other wildlife in the manner prescribed by the director.
No person shall permit his dog to hunt or chase deer. A natural resources police officer shall take into possession any dog known to have hunted or chased deer and the director shall advertise that the dog is in his or her possession, giving a description of the dog and stating the circumstances under which it was taken. The notice shall be published as a Class I legal advertisement in compliance with the provisions of article three, chapter fifty- nine of this code, and the publication area for the publication shall be the county. He shall hold the dog for a period of ten days after the date of the publication. If, within ten days, the owner does not claim the dog, the director shall destroy it. In this event the cost of keeping and advertising shall be paid by the director. If, within ten days, the owner claims the dog, he may repossess it on the payment of costs of advertising and the cost of keep, not exceeding fifty cents per day. A natural resources police officer , or any officer or employee of the director authorized to enforce the provisions of this section, after a bona fide but unsuccessful effort to capture dogs detected chasing or pursuing deer, may kill the dogs.
(C) If the complaint is found to be justified, the officer or designated person may, together with the owner and other residents, proceed to hunt, destroy or capture the bear that caused the property damage: Provided, That only the natural resources police officer or the wildlife biologist shall determine whether to destroy or capture the bear and whether to use dogs to capture or destroy the bear: Provided, however, That, if out-of-state dogs are used in the hunt, the owners of the dogs are the only nonresidents permitted to participate in hunting the bear.
(3) In all cases where the act of the bear complained of by the property owner is the killing of livestock, the value to be established is the fair market value of the livestock at the date of death. In cases where the livestock killed is pregnant, the total value shall be the sum of the values of the mother and the unborn issue, with the value of the unborn issue to be determined on the basis of the fair market value of the issue had it been born.
(1) The fee for the permit is ten dollars.
(2) As used in this subsection, "reasonable assistance" means aid appropriate to the circumstances, including by not limited to obtaining or attempting to obtain assistance from a natural resources police officer, law enforcement officer, 911 dispatchers, emergency medical providers and medical personnel.
(a) The division's law-enforcement policies, practices and programs shall be under the immediate supervision and direction of the division law-enforcement officer selected by the director and designated as chief natural resources police officer as provided in section thirteen, article one of this chapter.
(b) Under the supervision of the director, the chief natural resources police officer shall organize, develop and maintain law- enforcement practices, means and methods geared, timed and adjustable to seasonal, emergency and other needs and requirements of the division's comprehensive natural resources program. All division personnel detailed and assigned to law-enforcement duties and services under this section shall be known and designated as natural resources police officers and shall be under the immediate supervision and direction of the chief natural resources police officer. All natural resources police officers shall be trained, equipped and conditioned for duty and services wherever and whenever required by division law-enforcement needs.
(c) The chief natural resources police officer, acting under supervision of the director, is authorized to select and appoint emergency natural resources police officers for a limited period of time for effective enforcement of the provisions of this chapter when considered necessary because of emergency or other unusual circumstances. The emergency natural resources police officers shall be selected from qualified civil service personnel of the division, except in emergency situations and circumstances when the director may designate officers, without regard to civil service requirements and qualifications, to meet law-enforcement needs. Emergency natural resources police officers shall exercise all powers and duties prescribed in section four of this article for full-time salaried natural resources police officers except the provisions of subdivision (8) of said section.
(j) After June 30, 2010, all those full time law-enforcement officers employed by the Division of Natural Resources as conservation officers shall be titled and known as natural resources police officers. Wherever in this code the term "conservation officer," or its plural, it means "natural resources police officer," or its plural, respectively.
(a) Effective the first day of July, two thousand two, each natural resources police officer shall receive and be entitled to an increase in salary based on length of service, including that heretofore and hereafter served as a natural resources police officer as follows: For five years of service with the division, a natural resources police officer shall receive a salary increase of six hundred dollars per year payable during his or her next three years of service and a like increase at three-year intervals thereafter, with these increases to be cumulative. A salary increase shall be based upon years of service as of the first day of July of each year and may not be recalculated until the first day of July of the following year.
Accordingly, the director of the department of natural resources may enter into a written agreement with a federal agency providing for the appointment of employees of the federal agency as special natural resources police officers and setting forth the terms and conditions within which the federal employees may exercise the powers and duties of special natural resources police officers . The terms and conditions in the agreement shall grant a special natural resources police officer appointed pursuant to the agreement the same powers and duties as prescribed for a full-time salaried natural resources police officer of the department, but shall limit a special natural resources police officer in the exercise of his or her powers and duties to areas within the boundaries of the federal units to which the officer is assigned in his or her federal employment and to situations outside the boundaries of the federal units where the exercise is for the mutual aid of natural resources police officers as set forth in the agreement.
Any federal employee whose duties involve the enforcement of the criminal laws of the United States and who possesses a valid law-enforcement certification issued by a federal land management agency which certifies the meeting of requirements at least equivalent to the law-enforcement officer training requirements promulgated pursuant to article twenty-nine, chapter thirty of this code, may be certified under the provisions of said article twenty- nine and appointed as a special natural resources police officer under the provisions of this section. Any special natural resources police officer so appointed may not receive compensation or benefits from the state or any political subdivisions thereof for the performance of his or her duties as a special natural resources police officer .
(b) Beginning on the first day of July, two thousand two, and continuing thereafter, natural resources police officers shall be paid the minimum annual salaries based on the following schedule:
(second year)$29,768
Officer (third year)$30,140
Police Officer (fourth and fifth year)$30,440
Police Officer First Class (after fifth year)$32,528
Police Officer (after tenth year)$33,104
Police Officer (after fifteenth year)$33,528
(1) That the natural resources police officer is retiring honorably with at least twenty-five years of recognized law- enforcement service as determined by the chief natural resources police officer; or
(b) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (a) of this section, the chief natural resources police officer shall not award a service revolver to any natural resources police officer who has been declared mentally incompetent by a licensed physician or any court of law, or who, in the opinion of the chief natural resources police officer, constitutes a danger to any person or the community.
(c) The disposal of law-enforcement service weapons, when replaced due to routine wear, shall not fall under the jurisdiction of the agency for surplus property, within the Purchasing Division of the Department of Administration. The chief natural resources police officer may offer these surplus weapons for sale to any active or retired Division of Natural Resources law-enforcement officer, at fair market value, with the proceeds from any sales used to offset the cost of the new weapons.
(a) Any natural resources police officer who hires himself or herself to any person, firm or corporation to guard private property, or who demands or receives from any person, firm or corporation any money or other thing of value as a consideration for the performance of, or the failure to perform, his or her duties under the regulations of the chief natural resources police officer and the provisions of this section, is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not less than twenty-five dollars nor more than two hundred dollars, or confined in the county or regional jail for not more than four months, or both fined and confined.
(2) That special natural resources police officer is retiring with less than twenty-five years of service based upon a determination that he or she is totally physically disabled as a result of service with the division.
(b) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (a) of this section, the section chief shall not award a service revolver to any special natural resources police officer who has been declared mentally incompetent by a licensed physician or any court of law, or who, in the opinion of the chief natural resources police officer constitutes a danger to any person or the community.
In addition to civil service qualifications and requirements, persons selected as natural resources police officers shall have reached their eighteenth birthday at the time of appointment, be in good physical condition and of good moral character, temperate in habits and shall not have been convicted of a felony. Whenever possible and practicable, preference in selection of natural resources police officers shall be given honorably discharged United States military personnel. Each natural resources police officer, before entering upon the discharge of his duties, shall take and subscribe to the oath of office prescribed in article IV, section 5 of the Constitution of West Virginia, which executed oath shall be filed with the director.
The director shall prescribe the kind, style and material of uniforms to be worn by natural resources police officers. Uniforms and other equipment furnished to the s natural resources police officers shall be and remain the property of the state, except as hereinafter provided in this section.
A natural resources police officer, upon honorable retirement, shall be authorized to maintain at his or her own cost a complete standard uniform from the law-enforcement agency of which he or she was a member, and shall be issued an identification card indicating his or her honorable retirement from the law-enforcement agency. The uniform may be worn by the officer in retirement only on the following occasions: Police Officer's Memorial Day, Law Enforcement Appreciation Day, at the funeral of a law-enforcement officer or during any other police ceremony. The honorably retired officer is authorized to acquire a badge of the law-enforcement agency from which he or she is retired with the word "retired" placed on it.
The sheriffs and constables of the several counties of the state, police officers of any city and members of the department of public safety shall be vested, within their respective jurisdictions, with all of the powers and authority of natural resources police officer s without requirement of any additional oath or bond. Immediately upon making any arrest or executing any process under provisions of this chapter, each officer shall report thereon to the director.
(2) Carry arms and weapons as may be prescribed by the director in the course and performance of their duties, but no license or other authorization shall be required for this privilege;
(5) Require the operator of any motor vehicle or other conveyance on or about the public highways or roadways, or in or near the fields and streams of this state, to stop for the purpose of allowing the s natural resources police officers to conduct game-kill surveys;
(a) Except as otherwise provided in subsection (c) of this section, beginning on the first day of January, two thousand one, no person born on or after the thirty-first day of December, one thousand nine hundred eighty-six, may operate a motorboat or personal watercraft on any waters of this state without first having obtained a certificate of boating safety education from this or any other state, which certificate was obtained by satisfactorily completing a course of instruction in boating safety education administered by the United States coast guard auxiliary; the United States power squadron; the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources; any person certified to teach the course administered by West Virginia natural resources boating safety education section personnel; or any person authorized to teach the course prescribed by the national association of state boating law administrators in this or any other state.
Any person who operates an aircraft in this state shall be deemed to have given his or her consent by the operation thereof to a preliminary breath analysis and a secondary chemical test of either his or her blood, breath or urine for the purposes of determining the alcoholic content of his or her blood. A preliminary breath analysis may be administered in accordance with the provisions of section eleven-b of this article whenever a law- enforcement officer has reasonable cause to believe a person to have committed an offense prohibited by section eleven of this article. A secondary test of blood, breath or urine shall be incidental to a lawful arrest and shall be administered at the direction of the arresting law-enforcement officer having reasonable grounds to believe the person to have committed an offense prohibited by said section. The law-enforcement agency by which the law-enforcement officer is employed shall designate which one of the aforesaid secondary tests shall be administered: Provided, That if the test so designated is a blood test and the person so arrested refuses to submit to the blood test, then the law-enforcement officer making the arrest shall designate in lieu thereof either a breath or urine test to be administered.
For the purpose of this article, the term "law-enforcement officer" means and is limited to: (1) Any member of the Division of Public Safety of this state; (2) any sheriff and any deputy sheriff of any county; (3) any member of a police department in any municipality as defined in section two, article one, chapter eight of this code; and (4) any natural resources police officer of the Division of Natural Resources. If any municipality or the Division of Natural Resources does not have available to its law-enforcement officers the testing equipment or facilities necessary to conduct any secondary test which a law-enforcement officer may administer under this article, any member of the West Virginia state police, the sheriff of the county wherein the arrest is made or any deputy of the sheriff or any municipal law-enforcement officer of another municipality within the county wherein the arrest is made may, upon the request of the arresting law-enforcement officer and in his or her presence, conduct a secondary test and the results of the test may be used in evidence to the same extent and in the same manner as if the test had been conducted by the arresting law-enforcement officer. Only the person actually administering or conducting the test shall be competent to testify as to the results and the veracity of the test.
(i) Witnesses and oaths. -- The state fire marshal is empowered and authorized to issue subpoenas and subpoenas duces tecum to compel the attendance of persons before him to testify in relation to any matter which is, by the provision of this article, a subject of inquiry and investigation by the state fire marshal and cause to be produced before him or her papers as he or she may require in making the examination. The state fire marshal is hereby authorized to administer oaths and affirmations to persons appearing as witnesses before him or her. False swearing in any matter or proceeding aforesaid shall be considered perjury and shall be punishable as perjury.
(l) Report of losses by insurance companies. -- It is the duty of each fire insurance company or association doing business in this state, within ten days after the adjustment of any loss sustained by it that exceeds fifteen hundred dollars, to report to the state fire marshal information regarding the amount of insurance, the value of the property insured and the amount of claim as adjusted. This report is in addition to any information required by the state insurance commissioner. Upon the request of the owner or insurer of any property destroyed or injured by fire or explosion, or in which an attempt to cause a fire or explosion may have occurred, the state fire marshal shall report in writing to the owner or insurer the result of the examination regarding the property.
"Law-enforcement officer" means any duly authorized member of a law-enforcement agency who is authorized to maintain public peace and order, prevent and detect crime, make arrests and enforce the laws of the state or any county or municipality thereof, other than parking ordinances, and includes those persons employed as campus police officers at state institutions of higher education in accordance with the provisions of section five, article four, chapter eighteen-b of this code, and persons employed by the Public Service Commission as motor carrier inspectors and weight enforcement officers charged with enforcing commercial motor vehicle safety and weight restriction laws although those institutions and agencies may not be considered law-enforcement agencies. The term also includes those persons employed as rangers by the Hatfield-McCoy regional recreation authority in accordance with the provisions of section six, article fourteen, chapter twenty of this code, although the authority may not be considered a law-enforcement agency: Provided, That the subject rangers shall pay the tuition and costs of training. As used in this article, the term "law-enforcement officer" does not apply to the chief executive of any West Virginia law-enforcement agency or any watchman or special natural resources police officer ;
"West Virginia law-enforcement agency" means any duly authorized state, county or municipal organization employing one or more persons whose responsibility is the enforcement of laws of the state or any county or municipality thereof: Provided, That neither the Hatfield-McCoy regional recreation authority, the Public Service Commission nor any state institution of higher education may be deemed a law-enforcement agency.
(c) "Law-enforcement agency" means any duly authorized state, county or municipal organization of the state of West Virginia employing one or more persons whose responsibility is the enforcement of laws of the state or any county or municipality thereof: Provided, That neither the Hatfield-McCoy regional recreation authority nor any state institution of higher education may be deemed a law-enforcement agency.