Mississippi Administrative Code › Title 31 - Public Safety › Part 301 - Board on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Training Professional Certification Policy and Procedures › Chapter 1 - Definitions › Rule 31-301-1.1 - Definitions

Current through June 25, 2024
Herein are defined certain terms used in these Policy and
				  Procedures.
1.
Administrative
				Hold
- Shall mean the withholding of all training funds and
				certification certificates due to non-compliance with Board policy or official
				requests for information.
2.
Background Investigation -
Shall mean a comprehensive process
				designed to produce fact-based, complete, accurate and unbiased information to
				ensure that an applicant meets all standards and requirements for
				employment.
3.
Board
-
				Shall mean the Board on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and
				Training.
4.
Board
				Director
- Shall mean the Director of the Division of Public Safety
				Planning.
5.
Break in
				Service
- Any period of time when an individual is not a law enforcement
				officer as defined in this policy.
6.
Certificates
- Shall mean
				certificates issued only to fully qualified officers.
7.
Certified
- Shall mean the
				Board has acknowledged that all requirements mandated by this policy and the
				Law Enforcement Officers Training Program have been achieved and that a
				certificate has been issued as documentation of the same.
8.
Chief of Police
- Shall mean
				the chief law enforcement officer of the municipality, who shall have control
				and supervision of all police officers employed by the municipality. The
				officer in charge of municipal law enforcement officers, regardless of title,
				is acting as the Chief of Police.
9.
Code of Ethics -
Shall mean
				the ethical mandates set forth in Chapter 4, Rule 4.4,(1), Law Enforcement Code
				of Ethics, that law enforcement officers use to perform their duties.
10.
Criminal Record
- Shall mean
				any type of felony or misdemeanor conviction.
11.
Disqualifying Criminal
				Convictions
- Shall mean a criminal record that is specific and directly
				related to the duties and responsibilities of a law enforcement officer as
				determined by a consideration of the following factors: the nature and
				seriousness of the crime for which the individual was convicted; the passage of
				time since the commission of the crime; the relationship of the crime to the
				ability, capacity, and fitness required to perform the duties and discharge the
				responsibilities of a law enforcement officer; and any evidence of
				rehabilitation or treatment undertaken by the individual that might mitigate
				against a direct relation.
12.
Employment Standards
- To be qualified for employment as a law
				enforcement officer, the applicant must meet the following standards and
				requirements: Be at least twenty-one (21) years of age, a high school graduate
				(or obtain a General Educational Development (GED) Diploma), and a United
				States citizen; be of such good physical and mental condition to be capable of
				performing the duties under conditions inherent to the profession, as verified
				by a licensed physician; and be of good moral character as evidenced among
				other things by having neither a conviction, a plea of guilty, a plea of nolo
				contendere, probation, pre-trial diversion or the payment of any fine for a
				felony or a misdemeanor involving moral turpitude or in relation to a crime
				that is directly related to the duties and responsibilities of a law
				enforcement officer; and have engaged in no conduct or action that would
				greatly diminish the public trust in the competence and reliability of a law
				enforcement officer. Former members of the Armed Forces must have been
				discharged under honorable conditions. Fitness for service as it relates to
				moral character must be verified by an appropriate background
				investigation.
13.
Equivalency of Training
- Shall mean the assessment of an
				applicant's law enforcement training, education, experience and
				qualifications.
14.
"Grand-fathered" or exempt officers
- Shall mean full-time law
				enforcement officers already serving under permanent appointment on July 1,
				1981, and personnel of the division of community services under §
									47-7-9,
				Mississippi Code of 1972, serving on July 1, 1994, are not required to meet any
				of the provisions of the Law Enforcement Officers Training Program.
15.
Lateral Transfer
- A
				transfer by a certified officer to a different law enforcement
				agency.
16.
Law Enforcement
				Employer
- Shall mean the agency which employs the law enforcement
				officer.
17.
Law Enforcement
				Officer
- Shall mean any person or individual appointed or employed full
				time by the state or any political subdivision thereof, or by the state
				military department as provided in Section
				33-1-33,
				who is duly sworn and vested with authority to bear arms and make arrests, and
				whose primary responsibility is the prevention and detection of crime, the
				apprehension of criminals and the enforcement of the criminal and traffic laws
				of this state and/or the ordinances of any political subdivision thereof. The
				term "law enforcement officer" also includes employees of the Department of
				Corrections who are designated as law enforcement officers by the Commissioner
				of Corrections pursuant to Section
				47-5-54
				and includes those district attorney criminal investigators who are designated
				as law enforcement officers. However, the term "law enforcement officer" shall
				not mean or include any elected official or any person employed as a legal
				assistant to a district attorney in this state, compliance agents of the State
				Board of Pharmacy, or any person or elected official who, subject to approval
				by the board, provides some criminal justice related services for a law
				enforcement agency. As used in this paragraph, "appointed or employed full
				time" means any person, other than a deputy sheriff or municipal law
				enforcement officer, who is receiving gross compensation for his or her duties
				as a law enforcement officer of Two Hundred Fifty Dollars ($250.00) or more per
				week or One Thousand Seventy-Five Dollars ($1,075.00) or more per month; for a
				deputy sheriff or municipal law enforcement officer, the term "appointed or
				employed full time" means a deputy sheriff or municipal law enforcement officer
				who is receiving gross compensation for his or her duties as a law enforcement
				officer of Four Hundred Seventy-five Dollars ($475.00) or more per week or Two
				Thousand Fifty Dollars ($2,050.00) or more per month.
18.
Law Enforcement Trainee
-
				Shall mean any person appointed or employed in a full-time, part-time, reserve
				or auxiliary capacity by the state or any political subdivision thereof for the
				purposes of completing all the selection and training requirements established
				by the board to become a law enforcement officer or a part-time law enforcement
				officer. Such individuals shall not have the authority to use force, bear arms,
				make arrests or exercise any of the powers of a peace officer unless:
A. The trainee is under the direct control
				and supervision of a law enforcement officer;
B. The trainee was previously certified under
				this chapter; or
C. The trainee is
				a certified law enforcement officer in a reciprocating state