Chap. 21.—An ACT to authorize and empower governing bodies of counties ad-
joining any city with a population of one hundred ninety thousand or more,
lying wholly within this State, to establish, furnish and provide for police de-
partments and police forces in such counties; to provide for the appointment,
functions, powers, duties and compensation of police officers, chiefs of police and
police clerks and dispatchers in such counties; and to authorize the appropria-
tion of funds for the retirement of the members of such police departments.

[H 74]
Approved February 15, 1944

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. Section 1. The governing body of any county in this Common-
wealth adjoining a city with a population of one hundred ninety thou-
sand or more lying wholly within this Commonwealth, shall have the
power to establish a police force to be known as the County Police De-
partment of such county, which department shall include police clerks
and dispatchers, provided, that the establishment of such department shall
first be ordered by the adoption of a resolution to that effect by the re-
corded vote of the governing body of such county.

Section 2. The governing body of such county establishing a police
department shall have power to make provision in the county levy for
financing the department, and to appropriate from the county fund an
additional sum, not to exceed the amount which would be realized from
a levy of five cents per annum on each one hundred dollars of valuation
of property subject to local taxation, for the retirement of the members
of the police department. The governing body of such county may, in
its discretion, pay the funds so appropriated tc a duly chartered and in-
corporated association organized for the purpose of providing a retire-
ment plan and fund for personnel of the police department of the county,
and shall have further power to do all things necessary to establish, or-
ganize and administer the department and to carry out the provisions
of this act.

Section 3. If any county shall establish a police department as author-
ized herein, the judge of the circuit court of the county, either in term
or in vacation, shall appoint a chief of police for the county for a term to
be fixed by the judge at the time of appointment, who shall have super-
vision of the police department so established. The appointment shall be
made upon the nomination of the governing body of the county if the
nominee has the approval of the judge. The chief of police may be re-
moved by the judge for cause.

Section 4. Appointment of police officers in the police department
shall be made by the judge of the circuit court, either in term or vacation,
upon the request and recommendation of the governing body of the
county, which appointment shall be for such length of time as the judge
shall designate. Any such officer may be removed by the judge for cause.

Section 5. Employment of police clerks.and police dispatchers shall
be by the governing body of such county, upon the recommendation of
the chief of police, and such police clerks and police dispatchers shall
serve at the pleasure of the governing body of the county.

Section 6. All police officers appointed under this act, including the
chief of the department, shall be conservators of the peace in the county,
and shall be charged with the enforcement throughout the confines of the
county of all criminal laws of the State and all local ordinances. All mem-
bers of the police force, except as otherwise provided herein, shall be sub-
ject to the provisions of sections forty-eight hundred, forty-eight hundred
one, and forty-eight hundred two of the Code of Virginia, and subject to
all the duties and obligations imposed upon police officers by such sections
of the Code. The police officers shall be entitled to and there shall be
charged and collected by the courts the same fees as are allowed sheriffs
in like cases, and such fees shall be paid by the courts into the county
treasury.

Section 7. Before any person shall be appointed as police officer
hereunder, he shall make written application for such appointment to the
chief of police, upon application forms adopted and provided by the gov-
erning body of the county. The governing body is authorized to estab-
lish standards for the personnel of such police department as regards age,
physical fitness and educational requirements, to establish rank of per-
sonnel of such police department, and to fix the compensation according
to rank.

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