Assigned to COMPS & TRANSIT AS
PASSED BY CONFERENCE COMMITTEE
Assigned to COMPS & TRANSIT AS
PASSED BY CONFERENCE COMMITTEE
ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Fifty-Third Legislature, Second Regular Session
AMENDED
driver license testing; required
question
(NOW: ticket surcharge; public safety equipment)
Purpose
Establishes the Peace Officer Training Equipment Fund (Fund), consisting of an additional surcharge on fines, penalties, forfeitures and diversion programs for traffic violations.
Background
Current law requires the Arizona Supreme Court to make public the amount of the court diversion fee assessed by each Arizona court, and the total cost to attend defensive driving school for dismissal of a designated minor traffic citation (A.R.S. § 28-3395). The total cost to attend consists of the total of four amounts: 1) the court diversion fee; 2) the state fee; 3) the state surcharge; and 4) a school fee (Arizona Supreme Court). Currently, the state surcharge is five dollars (A.R.S. § 12-114). This legislation would increase the surcharge to nine dollars.
The Judicial Collection Enhancement Fund (JCEF) is a revenue fund consisting of fees for various court services and surcharges on penalty assessments. Included within this fund is a five‑dollar surcharge which is used for salaries of adult and juvenile probation and surveillance officers and for support of programs and services of the superior court adult and juvenile probation departments (Arizona Supreme Court).
There is no anticipated fiscal impact to the state General Fund associated with this legislation.
Provisions
Fund Sources
1. Establishes the Fund.
2. Increases, from five dollars to nine dollars, the surcharge on the fee charged for diversion programs for traffic offenses.
3. Requires the Supreme Court to continue to deposit five dollars of the surcharge in the JCEF, and the remaining four dollars in the Fund.
4. Establishes an additional four-dollar assessment on fines, penalties or forfeitures that are collected for traffic violations.
5. Permits a court to mitigate all or part of the assessment if the defendant who is ordered to pay the assessment demonstrates that the payment would work a hardship on the defendant or on the defendant's immediate family.
6. Requires the four-dollar assessment and a remittance report to be transmitted to the county, city or town treasurer, depending on jurisdiction.
7. Requires the county, city or town treasurer to transmit the assessment and remittance report to the State Treasurer, who must then deposit the assessment in the Fund.
8. Requires the State Treasurer to invest and divest monies in the Fund.
9. Requires monies earned from investment to be credited to the Fund.
Peace Officer Training Equipment Fund Advisory Commission (Commission)
10. Establishes the Commission.
11. Outlines Commission membership requirements.
12. Specifies that Commission members are not eligible for compensation.
13. Specifies which members:
a) are eligible for reimbursement of expenses;
b) serve three-year terms; and
c) are voting members.
14. Allows the Commission to use staff and facilities of the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission (ACJC).
15. Permits the Commission to enter into inter-agency agreements with ACJC and other agencies for Commission business.
16. Requires the Commission to submit annual recommendations to the Legislature regarding Fund money allocation.
17. Sunsets the Commission on July 1, 2026.
18. Requires the first $500,000 that are deposited in the Fund in FY 2019 to be appropriated to the Department of Public Safety (DPS) for employee overtime pay.
19. Requires the next $2.3 million to be appropriated to the DPS to purchase:
a) 10 virtual firing ranges;
b) 3 virtual training simulators for the Tucson Police Department, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office and the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office; and
c) software that is used with the virtual firing ranges and virtual training simulators.
20. Requires the next $203,000 to be appropriated to DPS to maintain and service the state's existing virtual training simulators.
21. Requires the next $50,000 to be appropriated to the Governor's Office of Highway Safety for public service announcements to educate divers on how to act during a traffic stop.
22. Requires the next $20,000 to be appropriated to the Supreme Court for one-time programming costs.
23. Specifies that new virtual firing ranges must:
a) be ballistically accurate to a degree of .08 milliradian, as verified by the Army;
b) take into account the exact weapon and round being fired;
c) emulate the real world as closely as possible, including ballistic fly-out projectiles, weapon behavior, projectile size, environmental effects and impact results;
d) work with the virtual firing range simulators that are used by the state before the effective date; and
e) be capable of generating unlimited custom high definition video scenarios, skill drills, targeting exercises and firearms training in any setting.
24. Specifies that virtual training simulators must:
a) have the ability to display, and for the trainee to engage with, characters and scenario content simultaneously across at least a 300-degree screen environment;
b) have the ability to accurately replicate real-world ballistic characteristics of a projectile in flight;
c) be equipped with transducers to recreate sound vibrations; and
d) include a stress component, including the use of a wireless device capable of delivering an adjustable electric impulse during training engagements.
Miscellaneous
25. Permits a person who is ordered or directed by a police officer to pull over to continue to drive in a lawful manner to a location that the person believes is safe and is in a public and populated area.
26. Requires the Director of the JLBC to prepare a semi-decennial report beginning by December 1, 2018 on:
a) the current amount of each surcharge and assessment that is collected on every fine, penalty and forfeiture and collected by the courts for traffic violations; and
b) assessment monies expenditures.
27. States that monies in the Fund:
a) are continuously appropriated until the specified one-time appropriations are made;
b) do not revert to the state General Fund at the end of the fiscal year;
c) are exempt from lapsing requirements; and
d) are subject to legislative appropriation.
28. Makes technical and conforming changes.
29. Becomes effective on January 1, 2019.
Amendments Adopted by the Commerce & Public Safety Committee
ˇ Adopted the strike-everything amendment.
Amendments Adopted by Committee of the Whole
1. Permits a court to mitigate all or part of the new four-dollar assessment on fines, penalties or forfeitures that are collected for traffic violations.
2. Applies reporting requirements to the JLBC instead of the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission.
3. Expands the list of technology for which Fund monies can be used to purchase.
4. Permits a person who is being pulled over to continue to drive to a location that the person believes is safe and is in a public and populated area.
5. Makes technical and conforming changes.
Amendments Adopted by Conference Committee
1. Removes language allowing a person being pulled over to continue driving to a safe place.
2. Establishes the Commission and outlines membership requirements and duties.
3. Modifies Fund uses.
4. Applies delayed effective date to entire bill.
Senate Action
COMPS 3/19/18 DPA/SE 5-2-1
3rd Read 4/24/18 16-13-1
Prepared by Senate Research
May 3, 2018
GH/VR/lb