2023 New York Laws › EXC - Executive › Article 12-A - Probation Officers and Related Matters › 257 - Probation Personnel; Qualifications and Duties.

§ 257. Probation  personnel;  qualifications  and duties. 1. Except as
may be otherwise specified in other  provisions  of  law,  all  salaried
probation  officers  and  their  supervisors, including the director, of
every probation department, agency or service maintained by  any  county
or  city  shall  be  in  the  competitive class of the civil service. No
person shall be eligible for appointment as a probation officer or to  a
position  that involves the duty of supervising a probation officer, who
is under twenty-one years of age, or who  has  not  had  a  high  school
education,  or  equivalent education, or who is not physically, mentally
and morally fitted. Probation officers  shall  be  selected  because  of
definite  qualifications  as  to  character,  ability  and training, and
primarily with respect to their capacity for rightly  influencing  human
behavior.   The   director  of  any  probation  department  may  appoint
non-salaried  volunteer  probation  officers,  provided  they  have  the
qualifications   required   of  salaried  officers.  The  general  rules
regulating methods and procedures in the administration of probation, as
may be adopted from  time  to  time  pursuant  to  section  two  hundred
forty-three   of   this   chapter,   may   require   additional  minimum
qualifications for probation personnel and shall set  forth  procedures,
not  inconsistent with this or other laws, to be followed in appointment
of all probation personnel.
2. The office of probation  and  correctional  alternatives  may  when
necessary  certify in writing the need of one or more salaried probation
officers  to  the  official  body  charged   with   responsibility   for
appropriating   funds   for  support  of  government  in  the  political
subdivision of the state wherein a probation department is located. Such
body shall then determine whether such need exists and if found to exist
it shall fix the salary of such probation officer  and  appropriate  the
necessary  funds,  as well as provide for the necessary expenses of such
officer.
3. Each probation officer who collects or has custody of money, before
entering upon the duties of his or her office,  shall  execute  a  bond,
pursuant to the provisions of section eleven of the public officers law,
in  a  penal  sum  to  be  fixed by the local director of probation with
sufficient  sureties  approved  thereby,  conditioned  for  the   honest
accounting  for  all  money  received  by  him  or her as such probation
officer. In the  discretion  of  the  local  director  of  probation,  a
position  scheduled  bond  covering  all  such probation officers may be
procured and executed in lieu of such individual bonds. The accounts  of
all  probation  officers  shall  be  subject to audit at any time by the
proper fiscal authorities and the office of probation  and  correctional
alternatives.
4.  It shall be the duty of every probation officer to furnish to each
of his or her probationers a statement of the conditions  of  probation,
and  to  instruct  him  or  her  with  regard  thereto; to keep informed
concerning  his  or  her  conduct,   habits,   associates,   employment,
recreation  and whereabouts; to contact him or her at least once a month
pursuant to rules promulgated by the commissioner  of  the  division  of
criminal  justice  services; to aid and encourage him or her by friendly
advice and admonition; and by such  other  measures  as  may  seem  most
suitable to bring about improvement in his or her conduct, condition and
general  attitude toward society. Probation officers shall report to the
head of the probation bureau or department who shall in turn  report  in
writing  to  the  court  and  the  office  of probation and correctional
alternatives at least monthly or where there is no bureau or department,
directly to the court and  the  office  of  probation  and  correctional
alternatives  concerning the conduct and condition of probationers; keep
records of their work as probation officers; keep accurate and  complete

accounts  of  all  money  collected  from  probationers;  give  receipts
therefor and make prompt  returns  thereof  at  least  monthly;  aid  in
securing  employment;  perform such other duties in connection with such
probationer  as the court may direct or as required by the general rules
adopted pursuant to section two hundred forty-three of this chapter; and
make  such  reports  to  the  office  of  probation   and   correctional
alternatives as it may require.
4-a.  In  the  event  a  probationer  ceases  to  participate in or is
unsuccessfully terminated from an alcohol  or  substance  abuse  program
ordered  by the court as a condition of a sentence of probation pursuant
to section 410.10 of the criminal procedure law or section 65.10 of  the
penal law, the probation officer shall immediately report said cessation
or  termination  to  the  local  probation director. The local probation
director shall report said cessation or termination to the court  within
ninety  days,  except where the probationer has resumed participation in
an alcohol or substance abuse program with the  approval  of  the  local
probation  director. The local probation director shall include the fact
of any such report to the court in the next monthly  written  report  to
the   court  and  the  state  director  of  probation  and  correctional
alternatives as required pursuant to subdivision four of this section.
4-b. It shall be the  duty  of  every  probation  officer  to  provide
written  notice  to probationers under the officer's supervision who may
be subject to any requirement to report to the office of victim services
any funds of a convicted  person  as  defined  in  section  six  hundred
thirty-two-a  of this chapter, the procedures for such reporting and any
potential penalty for a failure to comply.
5. Probation officers may require such reports by probationers as  are
reasonable or necessary. Probation officers shall be peace officers.
6.  (a)  Notwithstanding subdivision one of this section, the director
of probation in counties with a population of more  than  three  hundred
thousand,  except  counties  wholly contained within a city, shall be in
the non-competitive class of civil service and shall be appointed by the
county executive with the approval of the local  governing  body.  There
shall  be  one  deputy  director  of  probation,  who  shall  be  in the
non-competitive class of civil service. Such deputy shall  be  appointed
by the director of probation.
(b)  No  person  shall  be  eligible  for appointment as a director of
probation or deputy director of probation pursuant to subdivision one of
this section who does not meet the  minimum  qualification  requirements
established for the position by the general rules regulating methods and
procedures in the administration of probation.
(c)  The  provisions of this subdivision shall not apply to any person
holding the office of director or deputy director of  probation  in  any
such county on the effective date of this subdivision during the term of
such office.