Louisville, KY – According to the state officials, Gov. Beshear signed multiple bills that support the law enforcement and enhance public safety.
Gov. Beshear signed Senate Bill 89, which allows the legislative body of an urban-county government to re-employ, as needed, individuals as police officers who have retired from the Police and Fire Retirement Fund.
The Governor also signed House Bill 380, which expands the eligibility of potential peace officers to include individuals who have not yet turned 21 years old at the time of basic training, but who will have reached the statutorily required qualification of being 21 years old by the time certification is completed.
Under current law, all certified peace officers must be at least 21 at the time of certification. This legislation clarifies that training of the officer may occur while the individual is still 20 years old, so long as they will have reached the required age of 21 by the time certification occurs.
Gov. Beshear signed House Bill 540, which will expand definitions related to the use of school resource officers (SROs) to apply to private or parochial schools as well as public schools, creating consistency of expectations across different types of schools.
The Governor said this bill builds on legislation he signed last year which required all public-schools to have a school resource officer per campus as funding and personnel allowed.
The Governor also announced that 31 law enforcement officers from agencies across the state graduated the Department of Criminal Justice Training’s basic training academy. Since Dec. 2019, Kentucky has welcomed 1,115 new officers into the partnership of public safety. Kentucky employs almost 8,000 men and women police officers and sheriff deputies working to create a commonwealth that is safer for all Kentuckians now and into the future.
