A BILL TO ALLOW ABSENTEE ARRESTS
PREAMBLE:
To promote the use of the Department of Corrections prison bus and other methods of prisoner transport and to remove the liability of the arresting Corrections Officer when performing an arrest under the instructions of the actual arresting officer as prescribed.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE STATE OF FIRESTONE CONGRESS HERE ASSEMBLED THAT:
SECTION 1: The Department of Corrections shall be authorized to perform arrests on behalf of other law enforcement officers in the event that a person(s) is placed on prisoner transport for transfer to the correctional facility prior to arrest or dropped off at the correctional facility prior to arrest.
a. “A person placed on prisoner transport for transfer to the correctional facility prior to arrest or dropped off at the correctional facility prior to arrest” shall henceforth be referred to as “detainee”.
b. “Prisoner transport” shall be defined as a vehicle owned by the Department of Corrections and operated by an authorized correctional officer, the purpose of which is to carry individuals to be arrested for crime(s) from a secondary location to the Stapleton County Prison.
i. “Authorized correctional officer” shall be defined as an employee of the Department of Corrections who possesses the necessary certification to operate prisoner transport, as determined by the Cabinet official designated to lead the Department of Corrections, who shall henceforth be referred to as “the Warden”.
c. Such arrests will only be performed upon the explicit request and instruction of the officer who, had the detainee not been placed on prisoner transport or dropped off at the correctional facility, otherwise would have performed the arrest. Such an individual will henceforth be referred to as the “original officer”.
SECTION 2: When performing an arrest on behalf of the original officer, the correctional officer designated to carry out the arrest, henceforth referred to as the “designated correctional officer”, shall apply and read the charge(s) specified by the original officer. The duration of the incarceration shall also be determined by the original officer and the designated correctional officer shall apply it exactly as directed by the original officer. If applicable, the designated correctional officer shall input the identification of the original officer in place of the identity of the designated correctional officer themselves. The designated correctional officer shall not add or subtract charges or sentence time unless directed to by the original officer.
a. By permitting and designating a correctional officer to make an arrest in their stead, the original officer shall, in good faith, provide the correct charges and timing to the best of their ability and knowledge.
b. Superfluous details unrelated to the charge(s), such as capitalization, punctuation, formatting, grammatical and/or spelling errors, or any other related details unrelated to the text of the charge(s) themselves shall not be required to be inputted exactly, so long as the charge(s) intended by the original officer are applied.
SECTION 3: Should the arrest be conducted properly, with the designated correctional officer inputting the charges and time as per the instruction of the original officer and reading the charges designated by the original officer, the designated correctional officer shall be released from any liability relating to false arrest, as defined by state law.
a. Should the detainee pursue legal action for false arrest over the arrest inputted by the designated correctional officer, or otherwise dispute the charge(s) inputted by the designated correctional officer, the original officer shall be considered as the arresting officer and therefore the defendant, not the designated correctional officer, so long as the charge(s) were inputted correctly to the direction of the original officer.
i. Prior to the departure of the prison transport or the departure of the original officer escorting the detainee for dropoff, the original officer shall verbally specify the charges and incarceration time to the designated correctional officer; this shall be assumed as consent for the designated correctional officer to arrest in the stead of the original officer.
ii. The designated correctional officer shall retain picture or video evidence of this verbal consent for a time period of no shorter than two weeks. Such evidence shall also be submitted to a channel deemed appropriate by the Warden for the purpose of maintaining records, where the Warden shall retain it for a minimum period of time equal to whatever the statute of limitations shall be for civil matters; if no such time period exists, it shall be retained for a minimum of two months.
iii. In the event of a lawsuit related to an arrest made by the designated correctional officer on behalf of the original officer, the Warden or other authorized officer of the Department of Corrections shall provide the relevant evidence to the plaintiff or the defendant upon request from either party, respectively, within, at most, forty-eight hours.
iv. If no such evidence exists or can be provided to this standard, or if the designated correctional officer did not input the charge(s) as directed to by the original officer, the designated correctional officer shall be held liable in place of the original officer.
SECTION 4: Should any clause, subclause, or other section of this legislation be declared null and void or unconstitutional, the remainder of the bill not declared null and void or unconstitutional shall remain in effect.
SECTION 5: Upon passing the required Constitutional procedure, this legislation shall be brought into law.
Chief Sponsor:
Speaker pro tempore SurrealReality
Co-Sponsors:
Warden droow
Captain Polkinolk
Captain HeyItsSmoother
Admiral j_aaaames
Officer JasonBourneAxis