AB 1168: Peace officers: basic training requirements.

Existing law requires peace officers to complete a basic training course prescribed by the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training and to pass an examination developed by the commission. Existing law generally requires a person who does not become employed as a peace officer within 3 years of passing the examination, or who has a 3-year or longer break in service, to pass the examination before exercising the powers of a peace officer.

Under existing law, in certain counties, any deputy sheriff, who is employed to perform duties exclusively or initially relating to custodial assignments with responsibilities for maintaining the operations of county custodial facilities, is a peace officer whose authority extends to any place in the state only while engaged in the performance of the duties of his or her employment and for the purpose of carrying out the primary functions of employment relating to his or her custodial assignments, or when performing other law enforcement duties directed by his or her employing agency during a local state of emergency.

This bill would, until January 1, 2019, exempt a custodial peace officer within the class specified above who is appointed as a peace officer performing police functions from the requirement to retake the examination if he or she has been continuously employed as a custodial peace officer of that class for a period not exceeding 5 years by the agency making the appointment and maintains specified skills during that period.