CHAPTER 177
An Act establishing a grant program to provide body vests for certain law enforcement officers, supplementing chapter 17B of Title 52 of the Revised Statutes and amending R.S.39:5-41.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
C.52:17B-4.4 "Body Armor Replacement" fund; program.
1. There is created in the Department of Law and Public Safety a nonlapsing revolving fund to be known as the "Body Armor Replacement" fund. This fund shall be the repository for moneys provided pursuant to subsection d. of R.S.39:5-41 and shall be administered by the Attorney General. Moneys deposited in the fund, and any interest earned thereon, shall be used exclusively for the purpose of making grants to local law enforcement agencies, the Division of State Police and the Department of Corrections for the purchase of body vests for the law enforcement officers and corrections officers of those agencies. Of the moneys deposited into the fund, an amount not to exceed $75,000 shall be allocated annually to the Department of Law and Public Safety exclusively for the administration of the grant program.
The grant program shall be designed to effectuate a five-year vest replacement cycle, to the extent practicable, for local law enforcement officers, the officers and troopers of the State Police and State corrections officers. The Attorney General shall provide for the distribution of the initial grants in a manner which is conducive to establishing a balance among the number of local law enforcement officers who are eligible for vest replacement grants in each year of the five-year cycle. In the same manner and to the greatest extent practicable, the Attorney General shall establish a grant distribution schedule for the officers and troopers of the State Police that provides for a balance among the number of officers and troopers receiving vest replacements in each year of the five-year cycle. In establishing a distribution schedule for State corrections officers, the Attorney General shall give first priority to those State corrections officers assigned inmate supervision and control responsibilities in the State's maximum security correctional facilities and second priority to those officers assigned inmate supervision and control responsibilities in the State's medium security correctional facilities. The distribution schedule for State corrections officers shall be based on a five-year cycle, but need not provide for a balance among the number of officers receiving vests in each year of the five-year cycle.
The Attorney General shall promulgate rules and regulations to implement this grant program. Those rules and regulations shall include, but not be limited to:application procedures for local law enforcement agencies seeking vest replacement grants; criteria, such as crime rates and the age and condition of the body vests currently utilized by a local law enforcement agency's officers, to prioritize the awarding of grants; and guidelines identifying those body vests, by manufacturer or brand name, which may be purchased with grant moneys.
As used in this section, "body vest" means bullet resistant body armor which is intended to provide ballistic and trauma protection.
2. R.S.39:5-41 is amended to read as follows:
Fines, penalties; forfeitures, disposition of; exceptions.
39:5-41. a. All fines, penalties and forfeitures imposed and collected under authority of law for any violations of R.S.39:4-63 and R.S.39:4-64 shall be forwarded by the judge to whom the same have been paid to the proper financial officer of a county, if the violation occurred within the jurisdiction of that county's central municipal court, established pursuant to N.J.S.2B:12-1 et seq. or the municipality wherein the violation occurred, to be used by the county or municipality to help finance litter control activities in addition to or supplementing existing litter pickup and removal activities in the municipality.
b. Except as otherwise provided by subsection a. of this section, all fines, penalties and forfeitures imposed and collected under authority of law for any violations of the provisions of this Title, other than those violations in which the complaining witness is the director, a member of his staff, a member of the State Police, a member of a county police department and force or a county park police system in a county that has established a central municipal court, an inspector of the Board of Public Utilities, or a law enforcement officer of any other State agency, shall be forwarded by the judge to whom the same have been paid as follows: one-half of the total amount collected to the financial officer, as designated by the local governing body, of the respective municipalities wherein the violations occurred, to be used by the municipality for general municipal use and to defray the cost of operating the municipal court; and one-half of the total amount collected to the proper financial officer of the county wherein they were collected, to be used by the county as a fund for the construction, reconstruction, maintenance and repair of roads and bridges, snow removal, the acquisition and purchase of rights-of-way, and the purchase, replacement and repair of equipment for use on said roads and bridges therein. Up to 25% of the money received by a municipality pursuant to this subsection, but not more than the actual amount budgeted for the municipal court, whichever is less, may be used to upgrade case processing.
All fines, penalties and forfeitures imposed and collected under authority of law for any violations of the provisions of this Title, in which the complaining witness is a member of a county police department and force or a county park police system in a county that has established a central municipal court, shall be forwarded by the judge to whom the same have been paid to the financial officer, designated by the governing body of the county, for all violations occurring within the jurisdiction of that court, to be used for general county use and to defray the cost of operating the central municipal court.
Whenever any county has deposited moneys collected pursuant to this section in a special trust fund in lieu of expending the same for the purposes authorized by this section, it may withdraw from said special trust fund in any year an amount which is not in excess of the amount expended by the county over the immediately preceding three-year period from general county revenues for said purposes. Such moneys withdrawn from the trust fund shall be accounted for and used as are other general county revenues.
c. (Deleted by amendment, P.L.1993, c.293.)
d. Notwithstanding the provisions of subsections a. and b. of this section, $1.00 shall be added to the amount of each fine and penalty imposed and collected under authority of any law for any violation of the provisions of Title 39 of the Revised Statutes or any other motor vehicle or traffic violation in this State and shall be forwarded by the person to whom the same are paid to the State Treasurer. In addition, upon the forfeiture of bail, $1.00 of that forfeiture shall be forwarded to the State Treasurer. The State Treasurer shall annually deposit those moneys so forwarded in the "Body Armor Replacement" fund established pursuant to section 1 of P.L.1997, c.177 (C.52:17B-4.4). Beginning in the fiscal year next following the effective date of this act, the State Treasurer annually shall allocate from those moneys so forwarded an amount not to exceed $250,000 to the Department of Personnel to be expended exclusively for the purposes of funding the operation of the "Law Enforcement Officer Crisis Intervention Services" telephone hotline established and maintained under the provisions of P.L. , c. (C. )(now pending before the Legislature as Assembly, No. 806 of 1996).
3. This act shall take effect on the first day of the second month following enactment.
Approved July 31, 1997.