2015 Legislation
The 2015 Arizona legislative session ended on Friday April 3, 2015 at 3:37 am. The Senate, tired of waiting on the House to finish, adjourned sine die early, leaving several bills to die for a lack of a Senate vote on House amendments.
We would like to express our appreciation for all of the work by our lobbyists, Don Isaacson and Cheyenne Walsh.
The 2015 session was the shortest in the past 50 years, lasting just 81 days. The AZ FOP was actively working to protect members interests each day of the session. Overall, we reviewed 1,163 bills, closely tracked over 100 bills, advocated for good bills, requested amendments on bills and opposed bad bills.
Our 2015 FOP legislative agenda included, HB2377: LAW ENFORCEMENT MERIT SYSTEM; DETERMINATIONS. The AZ FOP and the AHPA worked cooperatively throughout the session to draft, amend and advocate for the bill. Late in the session, at the urging of the governor’s office, the initial bill was amended after both employee organizations agreed to a DPS management policy directive, which was offered as a solution to achieve our goal of making the LEMSC determination final, while retaining the “just cause” provision in the bill. HB 2377 requires disciplinary actions taken against Department of Public Safety (DPS) or Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board (AZPOST) employees or peace officers employed by certain state agencies to be based on just cause. HB2377 has been signed by the governor.
The statute allowing peace officers to purchase their handgun or shotgun upon retirement was in danger of being eliminated because the IRS ruled the provision was not a permissible retirement benefit within the PSPRS statutes. Our 2015 FOP legislative agenda included, HB2272: LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS; FIREARM PURCHASE, which retained the benefit and further expanded it. We were contacted by the Department of Gaming and one of the probation unions asking to include officers who are in ASRS and probation officers, which we did. The new law, which has been signed by the governor, now permits an officer who is a member of an eligible retirement system, upon retirement, and with the employing agency’s approval, to purchase the firearms issued to that officer by an employer at a price determined by the administrator of the agency employing the law enforcement officer. The bill defines eligible retirement system to mean ASRS, EORP, PSPRS and CORP. The bill defines firearms as any handguns, pistols, revolvers, rifles, shotguns, or other weapons that are designed to, will or may be readily converted to expel a projectile by the action of expanding gases. The bill defines officer to mean an AZPOST certified law enforcement officer, a detention or corrections officer, a non-probationary regularly appointed or employed deputy county sheriff or municipal police officer, a surveillance officer, a juvenile detention officer, or a juvenile or adult probation officer.
