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House committee advances bill letting POST board request medical, psychological records and charge fees for suspensions
Summary
The House Political Subdivisions Committee gave Senate Bill 21-65 a do-pass recommendation after testimony that the measure would allow the Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Board to request medical and psychological records relevant to licensure and to charge fees for suspensions as well as revocations.
The House Political Subdivisions Committee voted to give a do-pass recommendation to Senate Bill 21-65, a measure that would expand the Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Board's authority to request medical and psychological records and assess fees for license suspensions.
Senator Dean Rummel, sponsor of SB 21-65, told the committee the bill would allow the POST board to “issue a written request to release medical and psychological information pertinent to peace officer licensure” and to review such records when an applicant or licensee appeals a denial, refusal to renew, suspension or revocation. Rummel said the change is intended to “improve public safety and an officer's safety.”
Joe Ciani, chief of police of the Dickinson Police Department and chairman of the North Dakota POST board, testified the board has seen a “significant increase” in fitness-for-duty matters that agencies ask it to review, and that HIPAA currently prevents the board from receiving protected medical information. “The proposed amendments in this bill will allow the board to review and receive medical information related to fitness for duty matters,” Ciani said, adding that any review or hearings would occur in closed executive session and that the records would be exempt from open-records laws.
Ciani described three main changes in the bill: (1) authority for the POST board, with cause, to require a licensed officer to complete a physical or psychological examination; (2) exemption of the results from open-records disclosure and permission for the POST board to review those results in specified proceedings; and (3) authority to assess fees related to licensure beyond the current ability to assess a fee only in revocation cases, including adding a reinstatement fee for suspensions.
Committee members asked about the administrative-code versus statutory origin of current fees and whether the board could waive a reinstatement fee in cases where a suspension was found to be unwarranted. Ciani said existing licensing fees (initial licensing, reinstatement, late renewals, firearms qualification late fees) are in administrative code and that the board retains authority to waive fees in appropriate circumstances. He also said the cost of required examinations would be borne by the employing agency or the individual seeking licensure.
The committee moved a do-pass recommendation. The clerk recorded the final vote as 13 yeas, 0 nays, 0 absent, and the committee placed the bill on the consent calendar.
