BILL REQ. #:  S-3906.2 

Read first time 01/18/10.   Referred to Committee on Judiciary.

     AN ACT Relating to law enforcement officer conduct; and adding new sections to chapter 43.101 RCW.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   A new section is added to chapter 43.101 RCW to read as follows:
     The legislature finds that the recent decision of the Washington state supreme court in Kitsap County Deputy Sheriff's Guild v. Kitsap County, No. 80720-5 (2009) may limit the ability of employers to terminate law enforcement officers for acts of dishonesty and untruthfulness. The supreme court concluded that state law lacks a statute or other clear expression of public policy that a law enforcement officer should be honest and truthful. The legislature intends to amend state law to include an "explicit, well-defined, and dominant public policy" that law enforcement officers should be honest and truthful by clarifying that an arbitrator shall not overturn the decision of an employer to terminate a law enforcement officer for engaging in an act or acts of dishonesty or untruthfulness unless the arbitrator finds that the law enforcement officer was not dishonest nor untruthful.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   A new section is added to chapter 43.101 RCW to read as follows:
     In the event that any peace officer certified under the provisions of this chapter has been found by the appointing authority or the commission by a preponderance of the evidence to have engaged in an act or acts of dishonesty or untruthfulness in the discharge of his or her official duties and has been terminated by his or her employing agency or the commission based on the finding of dishonesty or untruthfulness, the arbitrator shall not substitute his or her judgment for the appointing authority or commission and shall sustain the termination unless the arbitrator also overturns the finding of dishonesty or untruthfulness.