PRINTER'S NO. 3036
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
HOUSE BILL
No.
2261
Session of
2024
INTRODUCED BY JOZWIAK, MAY 1, 2024
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT, MAY 1, 2024
AN ACT
Amending the act of March 7, 1901 (P.L.20, No.14), entitled "An
act for the government of cities of the second class,"
further providing for department of public safety.
The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
hereby enacts as follows:
Section 1. Section 1 of Article III of the act of March 7,
1901 (P.L.20, No.14), referred to as the Second Class City Law,
is amended to read:
Section 1. The department of public safety shall be under
the charge of one director, who shall be the head thereof. The
care, management, administration and supervision of the police
affairs, and all matters relating to the public health, to the
fire and police force, fire alarm telegraph, erection of fire-
escapes, and the inspection of buildings and boilers, markets
and food sold therein, and the construction, protection and
repair of buildings erected for police and fire purposes, shall
be in charge of this department.
Any police force under the department of public safety must
operate as a full-time police department.
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No person shall be employed in this department as a policeman
or fireman who is not a citizen of the United States, or who has
been convicted of crime, unless pardoned, or who cannot read and
write understandingly in the English language, or who shall not
have resided within the State at least one year preceding his
appointment.
No policeman shall be required to be on duty for more than
nine out of any twenty-four consecutive hours, nor for more than
forty-four hours in any calendar week, and every policeman shall
be allowed to have at least forty-eight consecutive hours off
duty in every calendar week, except in emergency cases for the
suppression of riots or tumults or the preservation of the
public peace in times of riot, conflagration, or public
celebrations; and in such cases, council shall provide for the
payment of extra compensation or time off at the same rate as
paid for regular service. The existing salary or compensation of
any policeman shall not be diminished because of the reduced
number of hours of duty prescribed by this amendment.
The department shall make suitable regulations, under which
the officers and members of the fire, telegraph and police force
shall be required to wear an appropriate uniform.
The city councils may provide by ordinance a fund for the
care, maintenance, and relief of aged, retired, disabled, or
injured policemen or firemen, and the families of such as may be
injured or killed in the service.
No policeman appointed under this act shall be dismissed
without his written consent, except by the decision of a court
either of trial or inquiry, duly determined and certified in
writing to the mayor, which court shall be composed of not less
than three and not more than five persons belonging to the
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police force, equal or superior in official position therein to
the accused. Such decision shall only be determined by trial of
charges, with plain specifications made by or lodged with the
director of the department of public safety, of which trial the
accused shall have due notice, and at which he shall have the
right to be present in person. The persons composing such court
shall be appointed and sworn by the director of the department
of public safety to perform their duties impartially and without
fear or favor; and the person of highest rank in such court
shall have the same authority to issue and enforce process to
secure the attendance of witnesses, and to administer oaths to
witnesses, as is possessed by any justice of the peace of this
Commonwealth.
Such charges may be of disability for service, in which case
the court shall be one of inquiry, whose decision may be for the
honorable discharge from the service of the person concerned;
or, of neglect or violation of law or duty, inefficiency,
intemperance, disobedience of orders, or unbecoming official or
personal conduct, in which cases the court shall be one of
trial, and its decision may authorize the director of the
department of public safety to impose fines and pecuniary
penalties, to be stopped from pay, or to suspend from pay or
duty, or both, for a period fixed by them, not exceeding one
year, or to dismiss from the service. The right of appeal of the
decision of the trial board shall be made within five days to
the civil service board.
It shall be lawful for the director of the department of
public safety, at his discretion, to suspend from duty before
trial any person charged, as aforesaid, until such trial can be
had, with or without pay as such court shall afterward
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determine, but no trial shall be delayed for more than one month
after charge has been made.
The finding of the court of trial or inquiry, as aforesaid,
shall be of no effect until approved by the mayor.
The laws in relation to health, buildings and building
inspection, remain unaffected by any of the provisions thereof,
and the board of health and the building inspectors shall remain
as heretofore, and shall be attached to the Department of Public
Safety.
As used in this section, the term "full-time police
department" shall mean a police force that maintains twenty-
four-hour-per-day police coverage in its designated area.
Section 2. This act shall take effect in 60 days.
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