A Senate committee has recommended the adoption of House Bill 21-61, which would recognize the Department of Commerce\u2019s Alcohol Beverage and Tobacco Control Division and the Commonwealth Casino Commission as law enforcement agencies.<\/p>\n
The Senate Committee on Judiciary, Government, Law, and Federal Relations recommended the bill\u2019s passage last Thursday, Jan. 30. <\/p>\n
Introduced by Rep. Joseph Lee Pan T. Guerrero (R-Saipan), the bill would amend the definition of \u201claw enforcement\u201d in the Commonwealth Code to include law enforcement officers of the ABTC and the enforcement and investigation officers of CCC\u2019s Division of Enforcement and Investigations. <\/p>\n
The bill recognizes that \u201csimilar to our other respective law enforcement agencies, especially in situations of life-risking duress, these officers are usually the first line of defense in not only protecting themselves but the surrounding individuals that are present during such situations.\u201d <\/p>\n
The bill deems it important for these ABTC and CCC officers to have the rights like other law enforcers, such as having the authority to carry firearms. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is of utmost importance to include the enforcement officers of the ABTC Division and the Commonwealth Casino Commission to allow for them to avail of the similar rights as other law enforcement officers in order for them to efficiently and effectively carry out their duties and responsibilities,\u201d the legislation notes.<\/p>\n
Currently, there are 32 agencies whose agents are recognized as law enforcers: ports police of the Commonwealth Ports Authority, correctional officers, probation officers, the sergeants-at-arms of the House of Representatives and the Senate, police officers, Division of Fish and Wildlife conservation officers, and the CNMI Homeland Security and Emergency Management Office investigators.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Senate committee has recommended the adoption of House Bill 21-61, which would recognize the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[8335],"class_list":["post-316847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-abtc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316847\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}