PRINTER'S NO. 693
No. 650 Session of 1989
INTRODUCED BY SALVATORE, MUSTO, ANDREZESKI AND LYNCH,
MARCH 6, 1989
REFERRED TO JUDICIARY, MARCH 6, 1989
AN ACT
1 Establishing minimum rights for law enforcement officers and
2 firefighters in connection with the investigative inquiries
3 of the chief executive officer or the governing bodies of
4 municipalities.
5 The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
6 hereby enacts as follows:
7 Section 1. Short title.
8 This act shall be known and may be cited as the Public Safety
9 Personnel Rights Act.
10 Section 2. Definitions.
11 The following words and phrases when used in this act shall
12 have the meanings given to them in this section unless the
13 context clearly indicates otherwise:
14 "Firefighter." A member of a volunteer fire company or any
15 full-time firefighter of any fire department or organization of
16 a municipality, including any city of the first class, other
17 than the chief or head of the fire department.
18 "Investigative inquiry." A hearing or inquiry conducted
1 pursuant to the resolution of the governing body of a
2 municipality in aid of its legislative powers and functions or a
3 hearing or inquiry conducted by a special committee or
4 commission created and appointed by order of the mayor or chief
5 executive officer of a municipality in aid of his fact-finding
6 powers and functions.
7 "Law enforcement officer." A full-time enforcement officer
8 of any police department or organization of a municipality,
9 including any city of the first class, other than the chief or
10 head of the police department.
11 "Municipality." An incorporated town, township, borough or
12 city, including any city of the first class, and any home rule
13 municipality, other than county home rule municipalities.
14 Section 3. Rights of law enforcement officers and firefighters
15 in connection with investigative inquiries.
16 Whenever a law enforcement officer is required to testify as
17 a witness or to otherwise undergo questioning in connection with
18 an investigative inquiry, the following minimum standards shall
19 apply:
20 (1) Law enforcement officers and firefighters may be
21 accompanied by their own counsel for the purpose of advising
22 them concerning their civil or constitutional rights. The
23 chairman, for breaches of order or decorum or of professional
24 ethics on the part of counsel, may exclude counsel from the
25 hearing. Counsel for such law enforcement officers and
26 firefighters may interpose legal objection to any and all
27 questions which in the opinion of counsel may violate the
28 civil or constitutional rights of his clients.
29 (2) If the body conducting an investigation determines
30 that evidence or testimony at an investigative hearing may
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1 tend to defame, degrade or incriminate any firefighter or law
2 enforcement officer, it shall:
3 (i) receive such evidence or testimony in executive
4 session;
5 (ii) afford such firefighter or law enforcement
6 officer an opportunity voluntarily to appear as a
7 witness; and
8 (iii) receive and dispose of requests from such
9 firefighter or law enforcement officer to subpoena
10 additional witnesses.
11 (3) No evidence or testimony taken from a firefighter or
12 law enforcement officer in executive session may be released
13 to any person or authority or used in public sessions without
14 the consent of the body conducting the investigation.
15 Section 4. Telecasts and broadcasts.
16 If any firefighter or law enforcement officer objects to the
17 broadcast or telecast of his testimony as a witness in
18 connection with an investigative inquiry because of a concern
19 that the exposure resulting from such broadcast or telecast
20 could jeopardize his life or safety or his activities as an
21 undercover officer, the investigative body shall consider such
22 objection and shall direct that filming or taping for purposes
23 of such broadcast or telecast be discontinued or that the person
24 of such firefighter or law enforcement officer not be telecast
25 during the course of the firefighter's or officer's testimony,
26 if there is a reasonable basis for such concern. The objections
27 shall be considered by the investigative body in executive
28 session. With the exception of the executive session on the
29 merits of the objection, nothing in this section shall be
30 construed as limiting media or public access to the testimony of
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1 any firefighter or law enforcement officer or limiting the right
2 to fully report such testimony or as limiting access to the
3 proceeding during the course of such testimony. Nothing in this
4 section shall be deemed to prohibit an investigative body from
5 according firefighters and law enforcement officers additional
6 protection against broadcast, telecast or photographic exposure
7 in connection with their testimony before said body.
8 Section 5. Right to give evidence.
9 Any firefighter or law enforcement officer whose character
10 shall have been impugned in the course of an investigative
11 inquiry authorized by order of a mayor or chief executive
12 officer of a municipality shall be given the opportunity to
13 appear with or without counsel, to present evidence, to cross-
14 examine any person who may have impugned his character and to
15 call witnesses of his own, and the investigative body shall,
16 upon application being made, exercise its subpoena power, if it
17 possesses such power, to compel the attendance of such persons
18 or witnesses to the same extent that the firefighter or law
19 enforcement officer would have such rights, pursuant to statute
20 or home rule charter, if the investigative inquiry were being
21 conducted by the governing body of said municipality.
22 Section 6. Retaliation for exercising rights.
23 No firefighter or law enforcement officer shall be
24 discharged, disciplined, demoted or denied promotion, be
25 transferred or reassigned, be discriminated against in regard to
26 his employment or be threatened as a result of the exercise of
27 any right granted under section 2, 3 or 4.
28 Section 7. Internal investigations.
29 Nothing in this act shall be deemed to affect the internal
30 investigations of any police or fire department, any
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1 disciplinary proceedings of any police or fire department or of
2 any municipality, any investigation by a district attorney or
3 other Commonwealth attorney, any grand jury proceeding, or any
4 judicial proceeding or other proceeding except an investigative
5 inquiry except as defined in section 1.
6 Section 8. Additional rights.
7 Nothing in this act shall prohibit a municipality or a body
8 conducting a legislative inquiry from according firefighters and
9 law enforcement officers additional rights in connection with
10 investigative inquiries.
11 Section 9. Application.
12 This act shall apply to all existing investigative inquiries.
13 Section 10. Effective date.
14 This act shall take effect immediately.
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