SB 148-BACKGROUND CHECKS FOR POLICE/TRAINING  1:40:37 PM CHAIR CLAMAN announced that the final order of business would be SENATE BILL NO. 148, "An Act relating to powers of the Alaska Police Standards Council; and relating to background checks for admission to police training programs and certification as a police officer." 1:41:23 PM BOB GRIFFITHS, Executive Director, Alaska Police Standards Council (APSC), Department of Public Safety, advised that the Police Standards Council (APSC) was established by the 1972 legislature to establish standards for the training and hiring of police officers. Subsequent to the enactment of the original bill, corrections officers, probation officers, and municipal corrections officers were added. Since first establishing regulations in the 1970s, fingerprint-based background checks are required for police officers in the State of Alaska. He explained that two types of police officers are certified in the state, as follows: urban officers, normally referred to as police officers; and with a slightly lower set of standards the council certifies village police officers for populations under 1,000 residents and communities that are off of the road system. Oftentimes, he explained, these communities have quite a bit of limitation as far as their resources are concerned. This bill specifically targets a problem that arose approximately two years ago, and the Alaska Police Standards Council first learned of the problem one year ago. He related that the federal government changed the definition of Police Standards Councils, and rather than calling these councils part of the public safety system, "they called us a licensing agency," meaning the nationwide councils are occupational licensing boards. He explained that that change moved the council out of the realm of being able to run fingerprint-based background checks itself. The Alaska Police Standards Council had always performed the fingerprint-based background check for small communities, and two years ago it lost that ability. He explained that the council would receive the criminal histories to make certain the people were not disqualified by the standards, they were then enrolled in training and then certified as officers. This bill is specifically targeted, he explained, to allow the Alaska Police Standards Council the ability to continue to perform the fingerprint-based background checks. 1:43:49 PM MR. GRIFFITHS advised that SB 148, Section 1 adds the Alaska Police Standards Council (APSC) to the list of all of the other agencies in the state that perform fingerprint-based background checks for occupational licenses, such as real estate agents, lawyers, and so forth. Section 1 amends AS 12.62.400(a). MR. GRIFFITHS advised that Section 2 (indisc.) to give them the (indisc.), which he said is fairly simple. Section 3 amends the training section to include the requirement of obtaining fingerprint-based background checks before being admitted to a police occupational basic training program. Section 4 amends the APSC standards to reflect the subsequent section in Section 5. Section 5 amends the standards to add a new subsection limiting the issuance of a certificate to only people who have had their fingerprint-based background check performed. Section 6 amends the definitions of "our section" to bring it into compliance with the rest of the statute. Section 7 specifies the applicability of the Act specifically to people applying for admittance to a police training program or who are appointed as a police officer on or after the effective date of the Act. Section 8 is a notice to the statutory revisors of the change in the APSC's classification language. 1:45:51 PM REPRESENTATIVE KOPP surmised that that this legislation simply gives the Alaska Police Standards Council the authority, again, to do what it was previously performing in order to ensure that a person applying to a police training program meets the statutory background check standards in Title 18. MR. GRIFFITHS agreed, and he clarified that the standards are in regulation, which was part of the issue wherein the federal government requires that the standards are in statute before it will recognize it as a legitimate exemption to the federal laws. 1:46:47 PM CHAIR CLAMAN opened public testimony on SB 148. After ascertaining no one wished to testify, he closed public testimony on SB 148. [SB 148 was held over.] #