§12559 State plan requirements

Summary

States must make a Police Corps plan that explains how they will pick and place participants. The plan must follow the screening rules in section 12556. It must say how participants will be assigned to State and local police, and no more than 25 percent of a State’s yearly assignments may go to a statewide police force unless the Director allows it. Participants must be sent where the need for officers is greatest and where they will be most useful. When possible, assignments should be near a participant’s home or where the participant asks. Assignments should be set when a person is accepted, but they can be changed before the start of the participant’s fourth year of college under the plan’s rules, and from the start of the fourth year until the participant finishes 4 years of police service only for compelling reasons and with the participant’s consent. The plan must not send participants to a local force that has shrunk more than 5 percent since June 21, 1989, or that has laid off members who are not retired. Participants should, when it is practical, do community and crime-prevention patrols. The State must provide proper training and leadership. The State may only refuse to appoint or remove a participant after federal training for good cause (for example, poor school progress) and after fair review steps in the plan. While serving, participants must get the same pay, benefits, and labor rights as other officers of the same rank and tenure.