The Vermont Statutes Online

Title 20 : Internal Security and Public Safety

Chapter 151 : Vermont Criminal Justice Council

Subchapter 001 : GENERAL PROVISIONS

• § 2362a. Potential hiring agency; duty to contact current or former agencies

  (a)(1) Prior to hiring a law enforcement officer, the executive officer of a potential hiring law enforcement agency shall:

  (A) require that officer to execute a written waiver that explicitly authorizes:

  (i) the officer’s current law enforcement agency employer to disclose its analysis of the officer’s performance at that agency, if the officer is still employed at that agency; or

  (ii) any previous law enforcement agency employers to disclose their analysis of the officer’s performance at that agency and the reason that officer is no longer employed by that agency, regardless of whether or not the officer is currently employed at an agency; and

  (B) contact all known previous law enforcement agencies to obtain the disclosures described in subdivisions (A)(i) and (ii) of this subdivision (1) and provide to the previous law enforcement agency a copy of the officer’s written waiver.

  (2) An officer who refuses to execute the written waiver shall not be hired by the potential hiring agency.

  (b)(1)(A) If that current or former agency is a law enforcement agency in this State, the executive officer of that current or former agency or designee shall disclose to the potential hiring agency in writing its analysis of the officer’s performance at that agency or the reason the officer is no longer employed by the former agency, as applicable.

  (B) The executive officer or designee shall send a copy of the disclosure to the officer at the same time he or she sends it to the potential hiring agency.

  (2) Such a current or former agency shall be immune from liability for its disclosure described in subdivision (1) of this subsection, unless such disclosure would constitute intentional misrepresentation or gross negligence.

  (c) A potential hiring agency that receives a disclosure under subsection (b) of this section shall keep the contents of that disclosure confidential.

  (d) A collective bargaining agreement between a law enforcement agency and the exclusive representative or bargaining agent of the law enforcement officers employed by that agency shall not include a prohibition on the exchange of information between the employing agency and another agency about an officer’s performance at the employing agency. (Added 2017, No. 56, § 1; amended 2019, No. 166 (Adj. Sess.), § 11, eff. Oct. 1, 2020; 2023, No. 75, § 6, eff. June 19, 2023.)