Senate Bill 2516

    Florida Senate - 2000                                  SB 2516

    By Senator Diaz de la Portilla





    34-1475-00

  1                      A bill to be entitled

  2         An act relating to law enforcement academies;

  3         amending s. 943.14, F.S.; requiring a

  4         background check prior to entrance into a

  5         basic-recruit class; amending s. 943.17, F.S.;

  6         requiring basic-recruit candidates to pass a

  7         basic skills examination; providing an

  8         effective date.

  9

10  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:

11

12         Section 1.  Present subsection (8) of section 943.14,

13  Florida Statutes, is redesignated as subsection (9), and a new

14  subsection (8) is added to that section to read:

15         943.14  Criminal justice training schools; certificates

16  and diplomas; exemptions; injunctive relief; fines.--

17         (8)(a)  Each criminal-justice-training school that

18  provides law enforcement, correctional, or correctional

19  probation officer basic-recruit training, or each selection

20  center that provides applicant screening for

21  criminal-justice-training schools, shall conduct a background

22  check of each applicant before the applicant enters the

23  basic-recruit class. A complete set of fingerprints shall be

24  taken by an authorized criminal-justice agency or by an

25  employee of the school or selection center who is trained to

26  take fingerprints. The school or selection center shall submit

27  the fingerprints to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement

28  for a statewide criminal-history check and shall also submit

29  the fingerprints to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for a

30  national criminal-history check.

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CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.






    Florida Senate - 2000                                  SB 2516
    34-1475-00




  1         (b)  Applicants who have been found guilty of a crime

  2  that would render them unable to meet the minimum

  3  qualifications for employment as an officer pursuant to s.

  4  943.13(4) shall be removed from the pool of qualified

  5  candidates.

  6         Section 2.  Paragraph (g) is added to subsection (1) of

  7  section 943.17, Florida Statutes, to read:

  8         943.17  Basic recruit, advanced, and career development

  9  training programs; participation; cost; evaluation.--The

10  commission shall, by rule, design, implement, maintain,

11  evaluate, and revise job-related curricula and performance

12  standards for basic recruit, advanced, and career development

13  training programs and courses.  The rules shall include, but

14  are not limited to, a methodology to assess relevance of the

15  subject matter to the job, student performance, and instructor

16  competency.

17         (1)  The commission shall:

18         (g)  Assure that entrance into the

19  basic-recruit-training program for law enforcement,

20  correctional, and correctional probation officers is limited

21  to persons who have passed a basic-skills examination and

22  assessment instrument based on a job-task analysis in each

23  discipline and adopted by the commission.

24         Section 3.  This act shall take effect July 1, 2000.

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26            *****************************************

27                          SENATE SUMMARY

28    Requires a background check of applicants for
      basic-recruit training and requires basic-recruit
29    candidates to pass a basic-skills examination.

30

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