OAR 259-008-0300: Grounds for Denial, Revocation or Emergency Suspension of Public Safety Professional Certifications

(1) The Board has established moral fitness standards that it has determined are critical to upholding the public’s trust in the public safety profession, protecting the public and ensuring that the conduct of a public safety professional or an applicant does not reflect adversely on the public safety profession. The Board finds by adopting this rule that a violation of these standards is substantially related to the duties performed by a certified public safety professional. (2) Mandatory Denial or Revocation of a Public Safety Professional’s Certifications. The Department must deny or revoke a public safety professional’s certifications based upon a finding that: (a) The public safety professional has a conviction for any offense designated under the law of the jurisdiction where the conviction occurred as being punishable as a felony or as a crime for which a maximum term of imprisonment of more than one year may be imposed; (b) The public safety professional has a conviction in any jurisdiction for any offense involving the unlawful use, possession, delivery or manufacture of a controlled substance, narcotic or dangerous drug, except for criminal dispositions involving use or possession of marijuana which are reviewed as discretionary cases under section (3) of this rule; (c) The public safety professional has a conviction in any jurisdiction for any offense involving domestic violence. For the purposes of this rule, domestic violence includes abuse of a child, and the term “domestic violence” has the meaning given by ORS 135.230, the term “abuse” has the meaning given by ORS 107.705, and the term “child” means a child who is under 18 years of age and is a natural child, adopted child, stepchild, a child under the guardianship of, or a child who regularly resides or formerly resided in the same household as the public safety professional; (d) The public safety professional has a conviction in any jurisdiction for a bias or hate crime; (e) The public safety professional is a sex offender pursuant to ORS 163A.005(6); or (f) The public safety professional has been discharged for cause from employment as a public safety professional. For the purposes of this rule, “for cause” means intentional conduct performed under the color of office to: (A) Obtain false confessions; (B) Make false arrests; (C) Create or use falsified evidence, including false testimony, or to destroy evidence to create a false impression; (D) Compel a person to abstain from doing, or to do, any act that the person has a legal right to do or abstain from doing; (E) Deprive, or attempt to deprive, another person or persons of their legal rights; (F) Gain advantage for a public or private safety agency or for personal gain; or (G) Discriminate against a person based on the public safety professional’s perception of that person’s race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age or any protected class as defined by state or federal law. (3) Discretionary Denial or Revocation of a Public Safety Professional’s Certifications. (a) The Department may deny or revoke a public safety professional’s certifications based upon a finding that the public safety professional engaged in conduct that includes any or all of the following elements: (A) Dishonesty. Dishonesty is intentional conduct that includes untruthfulness, dishonesty by admission or omission, deception, misrepresentation, falsification or reckless disregard for the truth; (B) Misuse of Authority. Misuse of Authority is intentional conduct that includes the use or attempted use of one’s position or authority as a public safety professional to obtain a benefit, avoid a detriment or harm another; or (C) Misconduct. (i) Misconduct includes conduct that violates criminal laws, conduct that threatens or harms persons, property or the efficient operations of any agency, or discriminatory conduct; (ii) For the purposes of this rule, discriminatory conduct includes a pattern of conduct or a single egregious act that evidences knowing and intentional discrimination based on the perception of a person’s race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age or any protected class as defined by state or federal law, and would lead an objectively reasonable person to conclude that the public safety professional cannot perform the duties of office in a fair and impartial manner. (b) For the purposes of this rule, conduct subject to discretionary review includes, but is not limited to: (A) A criminal disposition when the criminal disposition is not a conviction constituting mandatory grounds as defined in section (2) of this rule; (B) Conduct related to an arrest, a criminal citation to appear or its equivalent, or a criminal disposition; (C) Conduct related to circumstances concurrent to a separation of employment from a certifiable position such as, but not limited to, investigation, settlement agreement or allegations of misconduct; (D) Conduct that violates the standards of student conduct defined in OAR 259-012-0010; (E) Falsification of any information on any documents submitted to the Board or the Department; or (F) Conduct identified through receipt or discovery of information that would lead an objectively reasonable person to conclude that the public safety professional violated Board established employment, training, or certification standards for public safety professionals. (c) Review of discretionary criminal dispositions applies to criminal dispositions that occurred on or after January 1, 2001. The Department will not open a case to review criminal dispositions that occurred prior to January 1, 2001. (4) The Department will not open a case on a criminal disposition or conduct that was previously reviewed by the Department, a Policy Committee or the Board and determined not to violate standards for public safety professional certification or resulted in no action to deny or revoke certification using the administrative rules in effect at the time of the review. (a) Nothing in this rule precludes the Department from opening a case upon discovery of additional mandatory or discretionary grounds for denial or revocation. (b) Nothing in this rule precludes the Department, a Policy Committee or the Board from considering previous criminal dispositions or conduct as an aggravating circumstance in a separate discretionary case review. (5) The moral fitness standards defined in administrative rule in effect on the date the Department or the Board determined that the applicant or public safety professional was unfit for certification will continue to apply until the Final Order has been issued and all appeal rights have been exhausted regardless of whether the moral fitness standards have been subsequently amended or repealed. (6) Emergency Suspension. The Department must issue an Emergency Suspension Order immediately suspending a public safety professional’s certifications when a Policy Committee, the Board or the Board’s Executive Committee finds that there is a serious danger to public health and safety. (7) Any Board or Department action to deny, revoke or emergency suspend a public safety professional’s certifications will be administered in accordance with OAR 259-008-0300 through OAR 259-008-0340 and the applicable provisions of the Attorney General’s Model Rules of Procedure adopted under OAR 259-005-0015.