Chap. 466.—An ACT to amend and re-enact Section 1 of Chapter 10 of an act
entitled “An act to incorporate the city of Danville.”, approved February 17,
1890, as amended by Chapter 403 of the Acts of the General Assembly of 1932,
approved March 30, 1932, relating to the board of police commissioners and
police officers of said city. : [H B 542]

Approved April 6, 1942

1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That section
one of chapter ten of an act entitled “An act to incorporate the city of
Danville.”, approved February seventeenth, eighteen hundred and ninety,
as amended by chapter fotir hundred and three of the Acts of the General
Assembly of nineteen hundred and thirty-two, approved March thirtieth,
nineteen hundred and thirty-two, be amended and re-enacted, as follows:

Section 1. From and after the effective date of this section as
hereby amended, the board of police commissioners of the City of Dan-
ville shall consist of the mayor of said city who shall be ex-officio chair-
man, and four qualified voters of the city, who shall be appointed from
the city at large by the judge of the corporation court of said city, for
terms of two years.

(a) The said police commissioners, after taking the oath of office
as such commissioners, shall, as soon as practicable, meet at the office
of the mayor or other suitable place, as they may decide upon, and
organize by the election of one of its members as secretary. They shall
perform the duties of said office without compensation, and shall perform
such duties connected with the police department as the council shall
delegate to it in addition to such duties as are prescribed by this act.

(b) It shall be the duty of the said police commissioners to select,
and appoint by warrant of appointment, bearing the signatures of at
least two of said commissioners, to be immediately filed with the city
auditor, as many police officers, including a chief, sergeants, plain clothes
men, or other kinds of officers, patrolmen, et cetera, as the city council
may prescribe for the proper policing of said City of Danville; provided
that all such officers shall be qualified voters of the City of Danville, ex-
cept the chief of police, who need not necessarily be a qualified voter of
the city.

(c) The said commissioners shall make such rules and regula-
tions for the government of the police force of the City of Danville, not
contrary to the statutes of the Commonwealth as they, the said com-
missioners may deem proper; provided that the said commissioners shall
have no authority to expend any money or incur any obligations other
than by the election of police officers as hereinbefore provided, unless
such expenditure is made or such obligation incurred with the consent
and by the authority of the city council.

(d) The said commissioners shall have the power to remove from
office any police officer for incompetency or misconduct of which said
incompetency or misconduct the said commissioners shall be the sole
judge, and they shall have this right to remove, whether said officer or
officers shall have been appointed by the said commissioners or by some
other authority. The commissioners shall further have the right and
power to summon police officers or other persons to appear before them
and may require said police officers or other persons to give evidence
in regard to the violations of laws, ordinances or the rules of the board
by police officers or other persons and upon the failure of any person
to appear before the said commissioners, or upon the failure of any person
to give evidence before them in regard to said violation of laws, ordin-
ances or the rules of the board, when said persons have been properly
summoned, or after being summoned, appear before the said commis-
sioners, the said commissioners shall have the power and right to punish
said persons for contempt, by imposing a fine not to exceed twenty-five
dollars.

(e) Should the council increase the number of police officers, such
additional police officers shall be selected and appointed in accordance
with the provisions of subsection (b) of this section. In case of the
removal of any member of the police force by the commissioners or
other authority, or in case of a vacancy in the force for any cause, the
said commissioners shall fill such vacancy.

The mayor or any three of the other members of the said board may
call a meeting thereof.

2. An emergency exists and this act is in force from its passage.