31 Miss. Code. R. 301-3.3 - Procedures

1. All law enforcement employers included under the Law Enforcement Officers Training Program as described in this Policy and Procedures Manual should follow these steps in safekeeping certificates issued to their employees by the Board.

A. The employer, upon receiving the certificate from the Board director, should record the certificate number and the date issued in the employee's personnel file.

B. The certificate should remain in the physical custody of the employer at a site which houses agency operations. The employer may provide the employee with a photo static copy of the certificate.

C. The certificate, if defaced, destroyed, misplaced, or stolen while in the stewardship of the employer, will normally be replaced with a photo static copy. The production of duplicate certificates shall be minimized. The staff will evaluate each incident prior to the issuance of a duplicate certificate.

D. The employer should return the certificate to the Board director, along with a complete "Termination/Reassignment Report" form, within ten working days after:

1. The employee no longer meets all of the qualifications for employment (i.e.- the employee has been convicted, pled guilty, pled nolo contendere, fined, ordered into probation or pre-trial diversion in relation to a felony or a crime involving moral turpitude or to a crime that is directly related to the duties and responsibilities of a law enforcement officer, etc. [the employer shall provide official documentation of any such conviction]);

2. Receiving written notice from the Board of evidence that the certificate was obtained through misrepresentation or fraud;

3. The employee dies, resigns, laterally transfers or is terminated;

4. The employee takes leave or is assigned leave from actual performance of law enforcement duties from the employer for any reason for an indefinite period or for a period planned to last more than twelve months;

5. And receiving written notice from the Board that the certificate shall be returned for other due cause as determined by the Board.

E. The staff shall decide the disposition of a certificate within a reasonable time after receiving notice that a certificate has been returned. The Board may decide to:

1. Delay consideration of the return of the certificate;

2. Inactivate the certificate;

3. Assign stewardship of the certificate to a new law enforcement employer or;

4. Annul/revoke a certificate, if issued in error or through misrepresentation or fraud.

F. In the case of lateral transfer, the staff shall forward the certificate to the appropriate employer.

G. The staff shall maintain the certificate and all other file information of officers who have died or whose certificates have been inactivated in the Board files.

H. When the staff has inactivated a certificate because an officer is no longer in law enforcement employment as described in this Policy and Procedures Manual, is on indefinite leave or leave for more than one year, or for other reasons the Board director may reactivate the certificate when the certified officer resumes employment for the employer who returned the certificate or under a new law enforcement employer included under the Law Enforcement Officers Training Program. In any case, the employer may initiate the reactivation process by forwarding a "Law Enforcement Application for Certification and Background Investigation Review" form, Parts I, II and III to the Director. The Board director shall forward a reactivated certificate to the employer.

I. When an officer, certified by Mississippi statute, leaves law enforcement employment for a period of two years or more, his or her certification will lapse. Upon receiving a request to reactivate the officer's certification, the staff shall notify the employer, by letter, that the officer's certification has lapsed, and that the officer must qualify for Board certification within one year for full-time status and two years for part-time status of his or her current date of hire.

Notes

31 Miss. Code. R. 301-3.3

Miss Code Ann.§ 45-6-7, 45-6-9

Adopted 9/16/2019 Amended 11/3/2021