Current through Register Vol. 63, No. 9, September 1, 2024
(1) The
Board has established moral fitness standards that it has determined are
critical to upholding the public's trust in the public safety profession,
protecting the public and ensuring that the conduct of a public safety
professional or an applicant does not reflect adversely on the public safety
profession. The Board finds by adopting this rule that a violation of these
standards is substantially related to the duties performed by a certified
public safety professional.
(2)
Mandatory Denial or Revocation of a Public Safety Professional's
Certifications. The Department must deny or revoke a public safety
professional's certifications based upon a finding that:
(a) The public safety professional has a
conviction for any offense designated under the law of the jurisdiction where
the conviction occurred as being punishable as a felony or as a crime for which
a maximum term of imprisonment of more than one year may be imposed;
(b) The public safety professional has a
conviction in any jurisdiction for any offense involving the unlawful use,
possession, delivery or manufacture of a controlled substance, narcotic or
dangerous drug, except for criminal dispositions involving use or possession of
marijuana which are reviewed as discretionary cases under section (3) of this
rule;
(c) The public safety
professional has a conviction in any jurisdiction for any offense involving
domestic violence. For the purposes of this rule, domestic violence includes
abuse of a child, and the term "domestic violence" has the meaning given by ORS
135.230,
the term "abuse" has the meaning given by ORS
107.705,
and the term "child" means a child who is under 18 years of age and is a
natural child, adopted child, stepchild, a child under the guardianship of, or
a child who regularly resides or formerly resided in the same household as the
public safety professional;
(d) The
public safety professional has a conviction in any jurisdiction for a bias or
hate crime;
(e) The public safety
professional is a sex offender pursuant to ORS
163A.005(6);
or
(f) The public safety
professional has been discharged for cause from employment as a public safety
professional. For the purposes of this rule, "for cause" means intentional
conduct performed under the color of office to:
(A) Obtain false confessions;
(B) Make false arrests;
(C) Create or use falsified evidence,
including false testimony, or to destroy evidence to create a false
impression;
(D) Compel a person to
abstain from doing, or to do, any act that the person has a legal right to do
or abstain from doing;
(E) Deprive,
or attempt to deprive, another person or persons of their legal
rights;
(F) Gain advantage for a
public or private safety agency or for personal gain; or
(G) Discriminate against a person based on
the public safety professional's perception of that person's race, color,
religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin,
disability, age or any protected class as defined by state or federal
law.
(3)
Discretionary Denial or Revocation of a Public Safety Professional's
Certifications.
(a) The Department may deny
or revoke a public safety professional's certifications based upon a finding
that the public safety professional engaged in conduct that includes any or all
of the following elements:
(A) Dishonesty.
Dishonesty is intentional conduct that includes untruthfulness, dishonesty by
admission or omission, deception, misrepresentation, falsification or reckless
disregard for the truth;
(B) Misuse
of Authority. Misuse of Authority is intentional conduct that includes the use
or attempted use of one's position or authority as a public safety professional
to obtain a benefit, avoid a detriment or harm another; or
(C) Misconduct.
(i) Misconduct includes conduct that violates
criminal laws, conduct that threatens or harms persons, property or the
efficient operations of any agency, or discriminatory conduct;
(ii) For the purposes of this rule,
discriminatory conduct includes a pattern of conduct or a single egregious act
that evidences knowing and intentional discrimination based on the perception
of a person's race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity,
national origin, disability, age or any protected class as defined by state or
federal law, and would lead an objectively reasonable person to conclude that
the public safety professional cannot perform the duties of office in a fair
and impartial manner.
(b) For the purposes of this rule, conduct
subject to discretionary review includes, but is not limited to:
(A) A criminal disposition when the criminal
disposition is not a conviction constituting mandatory grounds as defined in
section (2) of this rule;
(B)
Conduct related to an arrest, a criminal citation to appear or its equivalent,
or a criminal disposition;
(C)
Conduct related to circumstances concurrent to a separation of employment from
a certifiable position such as, but not limited to, investigation, settlement
agreement or allegations of misconduct;
(D) Conduct that violates the standards of
student conduct defined in OAR 259-012-0010;
(E) Falsification of any information on any
documents submitted to the Board or the Department; or
(F) Conduct identified through receipt or
discovery of information that would lead an objectively reasonable person to
conclude that the public safety professional violated Board established
employment, training, or certification standards for public safety
professionals.
(c)
Review of discretionary criminal dispositions applies to criminal dispositions
that occurred on or after January 1, 2001. The Department will not open a case
to review criminal dispositions that occurred prior to January 1,
2001.
(4) The Department
will not open a case on a criminal disposition or conduct that was previously
reviewed by the Department, a Policy Committee or the Board and determined not
to violate standards for public safety professional certification or resulted
in no action to deny or revoke certification using the administrative rules in
effect at the time of the review.
(a) Nothing
in this rule precludes the Department from opening a case upon discovery of
additional mandatory or discretionary grounds for denial or
revocation.
(b) Nothing in this
rule precludes the Department, a Policy Committee or the Board from considering
previous criminal dispositions or conduct as an aggravating circumstance in a
separate discretionary case review.
(5) The moral fitness standards defined in
administrative rule in effect on the date the Department or the Board
determined that the applicant or public safety professional was unfit for
certification will continue to apply until the Final Order has been issued and
all appeal rights have been exhausted regardless of whether the moral fitness
standards have been subsequently amended or repealed.
(6) Emergency Suspension. The Department must
issue an Emergency Suspension Order immediately suspending a public safety
professional's certifications when a Policy Committee, the Board or the Board's
Executive Committee finds that there is a serious danger to public health and
safety.
(7) Any Board or Department
action to deny, revoke or emergency suspend a public safety professional's
certifications will be administered in accordance with OAR 259-008-0300 through
OAR 259-008-0340 and the applicable provisions of the Attorney General's Model
Rules of Procedure adopted under OAR 259-005-0015.
Statutory/Other Authority: ORS
181A.410,
ORS
183.341 & ORS
181A.640
Statutes/Other Implemented: ORS
181A.410,
ORS
181A.630,
ORS
181A.640,
ORS
181A.650 & ORS
183.341
