A N A C T
RELATING TO STATE AFFAIRS AND GOVERNMENT - DEPARTMENT OF ATTORNEY GENERAL
It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows:
SECTION 1. Sections 42-9-1 and 42-9-11 of the General Laws in Chapter 42-9 entitled "Department of Attorney General" are hereby amended to read as follows:
42-9-1. Head of department - Assistants. -- There shall be a department of the attorney general. The head of the department shall be the attorney general who shall have supervision over the department and shall appoint thirty (30) assistant attorneys general.
The assistant attorneys general shall have powers and duties similar to those imposed upon the attorney general by law and shall be performed under and by the advice and direction of the attorney general. The attorney general shall appoint such special assistant attorneys general as may from time to time be necessary and as shall be authorized by annual appropriation or otherwise provided for in the annual budget adopted by the general assembly, whose powers and duties shall be designated pursuant to section 42-9-2.
42-9-11. Employees of office -- Payment of expenses. -- The attorney general is hereby authorized and empowered to employ in his or her office such clerical assistance as he or she may require in the discharge of his or her duties as attorney general, and the general assembly shall annually appropriate such sums, and make other provisions in the annual budget, as may be necessary for the payment of clerical assistance, for general expenses and supplies, and for the employment of special counsel and investigators in the attorney general's department, and for the employment of six (6) all employees who shall not be in the classified service of the state nor be subject in any manner or control by the personnel administrator or by any person other than the attorney general. The state controller is hereby authorized and directed to draw his or her orders upon the general treasurer for the payment of that clerical assistance, out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, upon receipt by him or her of proper vouchers approved by the attorney general.
SECTION 2. Sections 42-9-8, 42-9-14, 42-9-15 and 42-9-16 of the General Laws in Chapter 42-9 entitled "Department of Attorney General" are hereby repealed.
42-9-8. Assistant attorneys general -- The attorney general is hereby empowered to appoint from time to time twelve (12) assistant attorneys general whose powers and duties shall be similar to those imposed upon the attorney general by law and shall be performed under and by the advice and direction of the attorney general, and such special assistant attorneys general as may from time to time be necessary, whose powers and duties shall be as designated pursuant to section 42-9-2.
42-9-14. Appropriation for support of scientific criminal investigation and training of law enforcement officers and firefighters -- An annual sum not to exceed fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000), or as much thereof as may be required, is hereby appropriated, out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, to the attorney general's department of the state of Rhode Island for the purpose of financial support of the scientific criminal investigation and the training of law enforcement officers and firefighters in modern scientific investigative techniques and research in the field of scientific investigation.
42-9-15. Payment of appropriated funds -- The state controller is hereby authorized and directed to draw his or her orders upon the general treasurer for the payment of the sum referred to in section 42-9-14, or so much thereof as may be required from time to time, upon the receipt by him or her of properly authenticated vouchers.
42-9-16. Purposes for which appropriation expended -- The attorney general of the state of Rhode Island is hereby authorized and empowered to expend the sum of money referred to in section 42-9-14 for the purchase of equipment, payment of salaries, purchase of materials, office supplies, laboratory supplies, labor for the publishing for the benefit of law enforcement officers in the state of Rhode Island of scientific advances in the field of criminalistics, and such other essentials as may, in his or her opinion, be deemed necessary and expedient to the scientific criminal investigation and training of law enforcement officers and firefighters in modern
scientific investigative techniques and research in the field of scientific investigation.
SECTION 3. This act shall take effect upon passage.