STATE OF NEW JERSEY
221st LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2024 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman GREGORY P. MCGUCKIN
District 10 (Monmouth and Ocean)
Assemblyman PAUL KANITRA
District 10 (Monmouth and Ocean)
SYNOPSIS
Authorizes veterans to deduct two years military service from age requirement for police officer under certain circumstances.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel.
An Act concerning certain age qualifications for police officer applicants and amending N.J.S.40A:14-127.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. N.J.S.40A:14-127 is amended to read as follows:
40A:14-127. Except as otherwise [herein] provided in this section, [no] a person shall not be appointed as a member or officer of the police department or force in any municipality who is under 21 or over 35 years of age.
In any municipality wherein Title [11] 11A of the New Jersey Statutes (Civil Service) [of the Revised Statutes] is operative, any person who shall have met the age requirements [herein] in this section at the announced closing date of a civil service examination for the position, shall be considered within the age requirements while the civil service list promulgated as a result of that examination is in effect.
Nothing [herein] contained in this section shall affect the employment or continuance in office of any person as a permanent policeman, employed by [said] the municipality prior to the adoption of the ordinance, creating and establishing a paid police department or force.
The provisions of this section are subject to [chapter 98 of the laws of 1944] section 1 of P.L.1944, c.98 (C.38:23A-2) relating to maximum age limits for persons serving in the armed forces of the United States as [therein] provided in that section, except if the person served at least 10 days during a time of war, the person is deemed to meet the maximum age requirement under this section if the persons actual age, less a period of not more than two years of service in the armed forces, equals 35 years or less.
(cf: N.J.S.40A:14-127)
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill authorizes veterans of the armed forces who are more than 35 years old to be appointed as police officers if a maximum of two years of time they served in the armed forces deducted from their actual age equals 35 years or less, provided they served at least 10 days in a war zone.
Under current law, a person is required to be at least 21 but not more than 35 years of age to be appointed as a member or officer of a municipal police department or force. An applicant who is older than 35 is deemed to meet this age requirement if the applicants actual age, less the period of military service during a time of war, meets the maximum age requirement of 35.
This bill establishes that a maximum of two years may be deducted from the applicants age, provided the person meets a minimum threshold of having served at least 10 days during a time of war.