STATE OF NEW JERSEY
215th LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2012 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Senator NICHOLAS P. SCUTARI
District 22 (Middlesex, Somerset and Union)
SYNOPSIS
Creates local police officer and paid firefighter emergency registry.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel
An Act creating a local police officer and paid firefighter emergency registry and supplementing Title 52 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. The governing body of every local unit shall provide to the Director of the State Office of Emergency Management in the Division of State Police a list of the addresses and telephone numbers of all police officers and paid firefighters that are employed by the governing body. The director shall establish and maintain a central registry of local police officers and paid firefighters in the State. The central registry shall include but not be limited to information regarding the address and telephone number of each local police officer and paid firefighter in the State.
2. a. In the case of an emergency the director, in consultation with the Office of the State Fire Marshal and the head of any affected local police or fire department or local emergency management coordinator, may, in his discretion, contact and reassign local police officers and paid firefighters from their usual place of employment to a local police or fire department in the closest proximity to their primary residence or other surrounding department, as the director shall deem appropriate.
b. When a police officer or firefighter is reassigned pursuant to subsection a. of this section and suffers an injury or death while working in an official capacity, he or his designee or legal representative shall be entitled to the salary, pension rights, worker's compensation, or other benefits as would have accrued if the injury or death had occurred in the performance of duties in the territorial jurisdiction in which he is employed.
3. As used in this act:
"Director" means the Director of the State Office of Emergency Management in the Division of State Police in the Department of Law and Public Safety.
"Emergency" means any flood, hurricane, storm, tornado, high water, wind driven water, tidal wave, fire, explosion, civil disorder or other catastrophe which is determined by the director to be of sufficient severity and magnitude to substantially endanger the health, safety and property of the citizens of this State.
4. This act shall take effect on the 90th day after the date of enactment, but the Director of the State Office of Emergency Management may take such anticipatory administrative action in advance thereof as shall be necessary for the implementation of this act.
STATEMENT
This bill requires the Director of the State Office of Emergency Management to create and manage a central registry of local police officers and paid firefighters working in the State.
In the event of a catastrophe such as a foreign attack or natural disaster, the director in consultation with the Office of the State Fire Marshal and the head of any affected local police, fire department or local emergency management coordinator, may use the registry to contact and reassign police and firefighters to a department in closest proximity to their primary residence or other close proximity.
The bill specifies that a reassigned police officer or firefighter who is killed or injured while working in an official capacity, will receive the same financial benefits that they are entitled to when an injury or death occurs in the jurisdiction in which they are regularly employed. This is the same entitlement that is extended to police, firefighters and EMTs who temporarily work outside of their jurisdiction in regional search and rescue teams pursuant to section 1 of P.L.1999, c.251 (C. 40A:14-199).