- 82nd Session (2023)
Senate Bill No. 323–Senators Seevers Gansert; and Hansen
CHAPTER..........
AN ACT relating to peace officers; requiring the Peace Officers’
Standards and Training Commission to adopt certain
regulations concerning the recruitment and selection of
category III peace officers from other states or the Federal
Government; and providing other matters properly relating
thereto.
Legislative Counsel’s Digest:
Existing law creates the Peace Officers’ Standards and Training Commission
and requires the Commission to adopt regulations establishing minimum standards
for the certification and decertification, recruitment, selection and training of peace
officers. (NRS 289.500, 289.510) This bill requires the Commission to adopt
regulations to establish standards for the reciprocity of a person from another state
or the Federal Government with a certification or law enforcement training
equivalent to a category III peace officer.
EXPLANATION – Matter in bolded italics is new; matter between brackets [omitted material] is material to be omitted.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEVADA, REPRESENTED IN
SENATE AND ASSEMBLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
Section 1. NRS 289.510 is hereby amended to read as follows:
289.510 1. The Commission:
(a) Shall meet at the call of the Chair, who must be elected by a
majority vote of the members of the Commission.
(b) Shall provide for and encourage the training and education
of persons whose primary duty is law enforcement to ensure the
safety of the residents of and visitors to this State.
(c) Shall adopt regulations establishing minimum standards for
the certification and decertification, recruitment, selection and
training of peace officers. The regulations must establish:
(1) Requirements for evaluations to be conducted during the
recruitment and selection of peace officers, which must identify
implicit bias on the part of a peace officer on the basis of race, color,
religion, national origin, physical or mental disability, sexual
orientation or gender identity or expression;
(2) Requirements for basic training for category I, category II
and category III peace officers and reserve peace officers;
(3) Standards for programs for the continuing education of
peace officers, including minimum courses of study and
requirements concerning attendance, which must require that all
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- 82nd Session (2023)
peace officers annually complete not less than 12 hours of
continuing education in courses that address:
(I) Racial profiling;
(II) Mental health, including, without limitation, crisis
intervention;
(III) The well-being of officers;
(IV) Implicit bias recognition;
(V) De-escalation;
(VI) Human trafficking; and
(VII) Firearms.
(4) Qualifications for instructors of peace officers;
(5) Requirements for the certification of a course of training;
[and]
(6) Standards for an annual behavioral wellness visit for
peace officers to aid in preserving the emotional and mental health
of the peace officer and assessing conditions that may affect the
performance of duties by the peace officer [.] ; and
(7) Standards for the reciprocity of a person who has been
certified as a category III peace officer or its equivalent by the
certifying authority of another state or who has successfully
completed a federal law enforcement training program that is
equivalent to a category III peace officer in this State.
(d) Shall, when necessary, present courses of training and
continuing education courses for category I, category II and
category III peace officers and reserve peace officers.
(e) May make necessary inquiries to determine whether the
agencies of this State and of the local governments are complying
with standards set forth in its regulations.
(f) Shall carry out the duties required of the Commission
pursuant to NRS 432B.610 and 432B.620.
(g) May perform any other acts that may be necessary and
appropriate to the functions of the Commission as set forth in NRS
289.450 to 289.680, inclusive.
(h) May enter into an interlocal agreement with an Indian tribe
to provide training to and certification of persons employed as
police officers by that Indian tribe.
(i) Shall develop and approve a standard curriculum of certified
training programs in crisis intervention, which may be made
available in an electronic format, and which address specialized
responses to persons with mental illness and train peace officers to
identify the signs and symptoms of mental illness, to de-escalate
situations involving persons who appear to be experiencing a
behavioral health crisis and, if appropriate, to connect such persons
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- 82nd Session (2023)
to treatment. A peace officer who completes any program developed
pursuant to this paragraph must be issued a certificate of
completion.
2. Regulations adopted by the Commission:
(a) Apply to all agencies of this State and of local governments
in this State that employ persons as peace officers;
(b) Must require that all peace officers receive training in the
handling of cases involving abuse or neglect of children or missing
children;
(c) Must require that all peace officers receive training in the
handling of cases involving abuse, neglect, exploitation, isolation
and abandonment of older persons or vulnerable persons; and
(d) May require that training be carried on at institutions which
it approves in those regulations.
Sec. 2. 1. This section becomes effective upon passage and
approval.
2. Section 1 of this act becomes effective:
(a) Upon passage and approval for the purpose of adopting any
regulations and performing any other preparatory administrative
tasks that are necessary to carry out the provisions of this act; and
(b) On January 1, 2024, for all other purposes.
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