ASSEMBLY, No. 2306

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

INTRODUCED SEPTEMBER 16, 1996

By Assemblyman GEIST

An Act concerning residency requirements for certain county law enforcement officers and amending P.L.1978, c.63.

    Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

    1. Section 1 of P.L.1978, c.63 (C.40A:9-1.3) is amended to read as follows:

    1. a. Unless otherwise provided by law and except as provided in subsection b. of this section, the governing body of any local unit may by resolution or ordinance, as appropriate, require, subject to the provisions of this act, all officers and employees employed by the local unit after the effective date of this act to be bona fide residents therein. A bona fide resident for the purpose of this act is a person having a permanent domicile within the local unit and one which has not been adopted with the intention of again taking up or claiming a previous residence acquired outside of the local unit's boundaries. Any local unit wherein the provisions of Title [11 (Civil Service) of the Revised] 11A, Civil Service, of the New Jersey Statutes are operative, shall transmit a copy of the adopting ordinance or resolution, as the case may be, to the [Civil Service Commission] Merit System Board.

    b. No county shall pass any ordinance, resolution, rule, regulation, order or directive, making residency therein a condition of employment for the purpose of original appointment, continued employment, promotion, or for any other purpose for any sheriff's officer, sheriff's investigator, chief warrant officer, director of the bureau of narcotics, county juvenile detention officer, county correction officer, county police officer, county park police officer, or court attendant appointed by a sheriff, provided that such person has been certified by the Police Training Commission as having completed a police training course at an approved school, pursuant to P.L.1961, c.56 (C.52:17B-66 et seq.). Any such residency ordinance, resolution, rule, regulation, order or directive in existence on the effective date of P.L. , c. (pending

 before the Legislature as this bill) or passed hereafter shall be void and have no force or effect with respect to those persons.

(cf: P.L.1978, c.63, s.1)

    2. This act shall take effect immediately.

STATEMENT

    This bill amends section 1 of P.L.1978, c.63 (C.40A:9-1.3) to prohibit residency requirements for certain county law enforcement officers. Currently, a county may adopt a general residency requirement that is applicable to court attendants appointed by a sheriff, sheriff's officers, sheriff's investigators, county correction officers, county police officers, county park police officers, county juvenile detention officers, the chief warrant officer and the director of the county bureau of narcotics. This amendment would ensure that those county law enforcement officers, provided they have been certified by the Police Training Commission as having completed a police training course at an approved school, pursuant to P.L.1961, c.56 (C.52:17B-66 et seq.), are treated similarly to municipal police officers for whom residency requirements are prohibited under section 11 of P.L.1972, c.3 (C.40A:14-122.1).

Prohibits residency requirements for certain county law enforcement officers.