RICHARDSON, BLACK, KLINDT, BARNETT, ROSS AND BERKOWITZ.
Read 1st time March 2, 2000, and 1000 copies ordered printed.
ANNE C. WALKER, Chief Clerk
AN ACT
To repeal section 590.100, RSMo 1994, and sections 304.230, 544.157 and 544.216, RSMo Supp. 1999, relating to peace officers, and to enact in lieu thereof four new sections relating to the same subject, with penalty provisions.
Section A. Section 590.100, RSMo 1994, and sections 304.230, 544.157 and 544.216, RSMo Supp. 1999, are repealed and four new sections enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as sections 304.230, 544.157, 544.216 and 590.100, to read as follows:
304.230. 1. It shall be the duty of the sheriff of each county or city to see that the provisions of sections 304.170 to 304.230 are enforced, and any peace officer or police officer of any county or city or any highway patrol officer shall have the power to arrest on sight or upon a warrant any person found violating or having violated the provisions of such sections.
2. The sheriff or any peace officer or any highway patrol officer is hereby given the power to stop any such conveyance or vehicle as above described upon the public highway for the purpose of determining whether such vehicle is loaded in excess of the provisions of sections 304.170 to 304.230, and if he or she finds such vehicle loaded in violation of the provisions thereof he or she shall have a right at that time and place to cause the excess load to be removed from such vehicle; and provided further, that any regularly employed maintenance man of the department of transportation shall have the right and authority in any part of this state to stop any such conveyance or vehicle upon the public highway for the purpose of determining whether such vehicle is loaded in excess of the provisions of sections 304.170 to 304.230, and if he or she finds such vehicle loaded in violation of the provisions thereof, he or she shall have the right at that time and place to cause the excess load to be removed from such vehicle. When only an axle or a tandem axle group of a vehicle is overloaded, the operator shall be permitted to shift the load, if this will not overload some other axle or axles, without being charged with a violation; provided, however, the privilege of shifting the weight without being charged with a violation shall not extend to or include vehicles while traveling on the federal interstate system of highways. When only an axle or tandem axle group of the vehicle traveling on the federal interstate system of highways is overloaded and a court authorized to enforce the provisions of sections 304.170 to 304.230 finds that the overloading was due to the inadvertent shifting of the load changing axle weights in transit through no fault of the operator of the vehicle and that the load thereafter had been shifted so that no axle had been overloaded, then the court may find that no violation has been committed. The operator of any vehicle shall be permitted to back up and reweigh, or to turn around and weigh from the opposite direction. Any operator whose vehicle is weighed and found to be within five percent of any legal limit may request and receive a weight ticket, memorandum or statement showing the weight or weights on each axle or any combinations of axles. Once a vehicle is found to be within the limits of section 304.180 after having been weighed on any state scale and there is no evidence that any cargo or fuel has been added, no violation shall occur, but a presumption shall exist that cargo or fuel has been added if upon reweighing on another state scale the total gross weight exceeds the applicable limits of section 304.180 or 304.190. The highways and transportation commission of this state may deputize and appoint any number of their regularly employed maintenance men to enforce the provisions of such sections, and the maintenance men delegated and appointed in this section shall report to the proper officers any violations of sections 304.170 to 304.230 for prosecution by such proper officers.
3. The superintendent of the Missouri state highway patrol may assign qualified persons who are not highway patrol officers to supervise or operate permanent or portable weigh stations used in the enforcement of commercial vehicle laws. These persons shall be designated as commercial vehicle inspectors and have limited police powers:
(1) To issue uniform traffic tickets at a permanent or portable weigh station for violations of rules and regulations of the division of motor carrier and railroad safety of the department of economic development and department of public safety, and laws, rules, and regulations pertaining to commercial motor vehicles and trailers and related to size, weight, fuel tax, registration, equipment, driver requirements, transportation of hazardous materials and operators' or chauffeurs' licenses, and the provisions of sections 303.024 and 303.025, RSMo;
(2) To require the operator of any commercial vehicle to stop and submit to a vehicle and driver inspection to determine compliance with commercial vehicle laws, rules, and regulations, the provisions of sections 303.024 and 303.025, RSMo, and to submit to a cargo inspection when reasonable grounds exist to cause belief that a vehicle is transporting hazardous materials as defined by Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations;
(3) To make arrests for violation of subdivisions (1) and (2) of this subsection. Commercial vehicle inspectors shall not have the authority to exercise the powers granted in subdivisions (1), (2) and (3) of this subsection until they have successfully completed training approved by the superintendent of the Missouri state highway patrol; nor shall they have the right as peace officers to bear arms.
4. [The superintendent of the Missouri state highway patrol may appoint qualified persons, who are not members of the highway patrol, designated as commercial vehicle enforcement officers, with the powers:
(1) To issue uniform traffic tickets for violations of laws, rules and regulations pertaining to commercial vehicles, trailers, special mobile equipment and drivers of such vehicles, and the provisions of sections 303.024 and 303.025, RSMo;
(2) To require the operator of any commercial vehicle to stop and submit to a vehicle and driver inspection to determine compliance with commercial vehicle laws, rules, and regulations, compliance with the provisions of sections 303.024 and 303.025, RSMo, and to submit to a cargo inspection when reasonable grounds exist to cause belief that a vehicle is transporting hazardous materials as defined by Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations;
(3) To make arrests upon warrants and for violations of subdivisions (1) and (2) of this subsection. Commercial vehicle enforcement officers shall not have the authority to exercise the powers granted in subdivisions (1), (2) and (3) of this subsection until they have successfully completed training approved by the superintendent of the Missouri state highway patrol. Commercial vehicle enforcement officers shall have the right as peace officers to bear arms.
5.] Any additional employees needed for the implementation of this section shall be hired in conformity with the provisions of the federal fair employment and antidiscrimination acts.
[6.] 5. Any part of this section which shall be construed to be in conflict with the axle or tandem axle load limits permitted by the Federal-Aid Highway Act, Section 127 of Title 23 of the United States Code (Public Law 85-767, 85th Congress) shall be null, void and of no effect.
6. The superintendent of the Missouri state highway patrol may appoint qualified persons to be designated as commercial vehicle officers. They shall be deemed peace officers of the state of Missouri and may be certified as defined in chapter 590, RSMo. They will not be members of the patrol, nor will they be civilian or uniformed civilian employees of the patrol but will be commercial vehicle officers.
7. They shall have full police powers to:
(1) Issue uniform traffic tickets for violations of any law, rule or regulation, moving or nonmoving pertaining to commercial vehicles, trailers, special mobile equipment and the drivers or owners of such vehicles and the provisions of sections 303.024 and 303.025, RSMo;
(2) To require the operator of any commercial vehicle to stop and submit to a driver and vehicle inspection to determine compliance with commercial vehicle laws, rules and regulations, compliance with the provisions of sections 303.024 and 303.025, RSMo, and shall have the right to enter in or upon commercial vehicles and break cargo seals in order to perform inspections of commercial vehicles in operation upon public highways. They shall also have full power to investigate and enforce state and federal laws pertaining to hazardous materials and hazardous waste regulations and the use, possession and distribution of illegal drugs on public or private property. They shall have the power to place vehicles and drivers out of service in accordance with the North American Standard Out of Service Criteria;
(3) To make arrest upon warrants for any offense, the right of search and seizure upon public highways, the right to make arrest relating to commercial motor vehicle violations, moving or nonmoving not committed in their presence and for violations of subdivisions (1) and (2) of this subsection.
8. The operator of a commercial vehicle shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor to fail to obey the reasonable request of a commercial vehicle officer.
9. Commercial vehicle officers shall have the right as peace officers to bear arms and shall have all rights as peace officers while assisting members of the patrol, sheriff department, city police or any other law enforcement agency of this state at times designated by the superintendent. They shall have all rights as certified peace officers as defined in sections 544.157 and 544.216, RSMo.
10. Commercial vehicle officers shall not have the authority to exercise the powers granted in subdivisions (1), (2) and (3) of subsection 7 of this section until they have successfully completed the training approved by the superintendent, taken and subscribed to an oath of office to support and defend the Constitution of the United States and of the state of Missouri and to faithfully demean themselves in the office of commercial vehicle officer.
11. The superintendent shall establish an equitable pay plan and military style rank structure for commercial vehicle officers taking into consideration rank and length of service as compared to officers of the Kansas City and St. Louis police department commercial vehicle enforcement units.
12. All expenses for commercial vehicle officers training, equipment, vehicles and any other items necessary for the enforcement of commercial vehicle laws shall be paid from a commercial vehicle enforcement fund established and administered by the state treasurer. The commercial vehicle enforcement fund will be derived from a percentage of the fees collected by the state of Missouri from the operation of commercial vehicles in the state of Missouri. Money from this fund shall only be used for commercial vehicle officers.
544.157. 1. Any law enforcement officer certified pursuant to chapter 590, RSMo, of any political subdivision of this state, any authorized agent of the department of conservation, any commissioned member of the Missouri capitol police, any commissioned member of the Missouri state park rangers, any commercial vehicle officer of the Missouri state highway patrol and any authorized agent of the Missouri state water patrol in fresh pursuit of a person who is reasonably believed by such officer to have committed a felony in this state or who has committed, or attempted to commit, in the presence of such officer or agent, any criminal offense or violation of a municipal or county ordinance, or for whom such officer holds a warrant of arrest for a criminal offense, shall have the authority to arrest and hold in custody such person anywhere in this state. Fresh pursuit may only be initiated from within the pursuing peace officer's, conservation agent's, capitol police officer's, state park ranger's, commercial vehicle officer's or water patrol officer's jurisdiction and shall be terminated once the pursuing peace officer is outside of such officer's jurisdiction and has lost contact with the person being pursued. If the offense is a traffic violation, the uniform traffic ticket shall be used as if the violator had been apprehended in the municipality or county in which the offense occurred.
2. If such an arrest is made in obedience to a warrant, the disposition of the prisoner shall be made as in other cases of arrest under a warrant; if the violator is served with a uniform traffic ticket, the violator shall be directed to appear before a court having jurisdiction to try the offense; if the arrest is without a warrant, the prisoner shall be taken forthwith before a judge of a court with original criminal jurisdiction in the county wherein such arrest was made or before a municipal judge thereof having original jurisdiction to try such offense, who may release the person as provided in section 544.455, conditioned upon such person's appearance before the court having jurisdiction to try the offense. The person so arrested need not be taken before a judge as herein set out if given a summons by the arresting officer.
3. The term "fresh pursuit", as used in this section, shall include hot or fresh pursuit as defined by the common law and also the pursuit of a person who has committed a felony or is reasonably suspected of having committed a felony in this state, or who has committed or attempted to commit in this state a criminal offense or violation of municipal or county ordinance in the presence of the arresting officer referred to in subsection 1 of this section or for whom such officer holds a warrant of arrest for a criminal offense. It shall include also the pursuit of a person suspected of having committed a supposed felony in this state, though no felony has actually been committed, if there is reasonable ground for so believing. "Fresh pursuit" as used herein shall imply instant pursuit.
4. A public agency electing to institute vehicular pursuits shall adopt a policy for the safe conduct of vehicular pursuits by peace officers. Such policy shall meet the following minimum standards:
(1) There shall be supervisory control of the pursuit;
(2) There shall be procedures for designating the primary pursuit vehicle and for determining the total number of vehicles to be permitted to participate at one time in the pursuit;
(3) There shall be procedures for coordinating operation with other jurisdictions; and
(4) There shall be guidelines for determining when the interests of public safety and effective law enforcement justify a vehicular pursuit and when a vehicular pursuit should not be initiated or should be terminated.
544.216. Any sheriff or deputy sheriff, any member or commercial vehicle officer of the Missouri state highway patrol, and any county or municipal law enforcement officer in this state, except those officers of a political subdivision or municipality having a population of less than two thousand persons or which does not have at least four full-time nonelected peace officers unless such subdivision or municipality has elected to come under and is operating pursuant to the provisions of sections 590.100 to 590.150, RSMo, may arrest on view, and without a warrant, any person the officer sees violating or who such officer has reasonable grounds to believe has violated any law of this state, including a misdemeanor or infraction, or has violated any ordinance over which such officer has jurisdiction. Peace officers of a municipality shall have arrest powers, as described in this section, upon lands which are leased or owned by the municipality in an unincorporated area. Ordinances enacted by a municipality, owning or leasing lands outside its boundaries, may be enforced by peace officers of the municipality upon such owned or leased lands. The power of arrest authorized by this section is in addition to all other powers conferred upon law enforcement officers, and shall not be construed so as to limit or restrict any other power of a law enforcement officer.
590.100. As used in sections 590.100 to 590.180, the following terms mean:
(1) "Certified training academy", any academy located within the state of Missouri which has been certified by the director to provide training programs for peace officers in this state;
(2) "Chief executive officer", the chief of police, director of public safety, sheriff, department head or chief administrator of any law enforcement or public safety agency of the state or any political subdivision thereof who is responsible for the prevention and detection of crime and the enforcement of the general criminal laws of the state or for violation of ordinances of a county or municipality;
(3) "Director", the director of the Missouri department of public safety;
(4) "Peace officer", members and commercial vehicle officers of the state highway patrol, all state, county, and municipal law enforcement officers possessing the duty and power of arrest for violation of any criminal laws of the state or for violation of ordinances of counties or municipalities of the state who serve full time, with pay;
(5) "Reserve officer", any person who serves in a less than full-time law enforcement capacity, with or without pay, and
who, without certification, has no power of arrest and who, without certification, must be under the direct and immediate
accompaniment of a certified peace officer of the same agency at all times while on duty. In a county of the first class
adjoining a city not within a county, reserve peace officers may engage in all nonprimary enforcement activities without
being under direct or immediate accompaniment of a certified peace officer.
Missouri House of Representatives