§ 12-9-304 — Appointment and training requirements

(a) (1) A person shall not function as an auxiliary law enforcement officer until the minimum standards for appointment and training requirements have been completed. (2) An auxiliary law enforcement officer who has not met the minimum standards for appointment and training requirements shall have no law enforcement authority except that which is authorized for a private citizen. (b) All persons who are serving as auxiliary law enforcement officers prior to March 24, 1983, are exempt from meeting the appointment requirements. (c) The training requirements for auxiliary law enforcement officers shall be established by the Arkansas Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Training, and the basic training course shall not exceed the part-time law enforcement officers' training requirements. (d) Honorary police officers are exempt from the provisions of this subchapter. (e) The commission may issue a certificate evidencing satisfactory completion of the requirements of this subchapter when evidence is submitted by the law enforcement agency director, chief, or county sheriff that the auxiliary law enforcement officer has met the training and selection requirements. (f) (1) The appointing law enforcement agency shall provide not less than one hundred ten (110) hours of commission-approved law enforcement training, which shall include a firearms qualification course equivalent to the firearms qualification requirements for a full-time law enforcement officer, and an auxiliary law enforcement officer shall not bear a firearm until having successfully completed the commission-approved law enforcement training. (2) An auxiliary law enforcement officer is not required to requalify for firearms qualification beyond what a full-time law enforcement officer is required to complete for requalification for the purposes of carrying a concealed handgun while the auxiliary law enforcement officer remains appointed as an auxiliary law enforcement officer. (g) Nothing in this section shall be construed to preclude any law enforcement agency from establishing qualifications and standards for appointing and training of auxiliary law enforcement officers that exceed those set by this subchapter or by the commission. (h) Any auxiliary law enforcement officer failing to meet the training requirements as set forth in this subchapter shall lose his or her appointment as auxiliary law enforcement officer and shall not be reappointed until training requirements have been met. (i) No person may be appointed or serve as an auxiliary law enforcement officer if the person has been convicted by a state or by the federal government of a crime, the punishment for which could have been imprisonment in a federal penitentiary or a state prison. (j) Every person appointed or serving as an auxiliary law enforcement officer shall be a citizen of the United States and shall be at least twenty-one (21) years of age.

Legislative History

Amended by Act 2019, No. 151,§ 4, eff. 7/24/2019. Amended by Act 2017, No. 957,§ 3, eff. 8/1/2017. Amended by Act 2017, No. 497,§ 18, eff. 8/1/2017. Acts 1983, No. 757, § 4; A.S.A. 1947, § 42-1404.