Discretionary Enforcement Negotiations (DEN) Act

Discretionary Enforcement Negotiations (DEN) Act

Introduction

In the interest of encouraging lawyers to engage with Law Enforcement Officers and the public defense process, the San Andreas Department of Justice believes it is important to extend discretionary negotiation powers to Law Enforcement Officers engaging in the act of prosecuting criminals.

Constitutional Justification

As is written in the Constitution of San Andreas, the San Andreas Department of Justice has full control over all legal and judicial matters in the State of San Andreas. As such, we are operating within our capacity to create an environment where Law Enforcement Officers may engage in good faith negotiations of the State Penal Code charges during processing and plea deals.

Details and Implementation

Law Enforcement Officers may reduce time in the following situations; if a citizen has spent an unreasonably long amount of time in PD custody, if a citizen has spent time engaging in negotiations with Public Defenders to reduce or remove charges in the cells, or if a citizen chooses to plead guilty to the crimes they are being charged with.

The time that Law Enforcement Officers is limited by the following section:

If a citizen has been in custody for longer than twenty minutes, Law Enforcement Officers may take off one month for each minute spent in Law Enforcement custody.

If a citizen has been engaging in good faith negotiations with Public Defenders, Law Enforcement Officers may take one month off for each minute that negotiations have been conducted. They also are free to remove charges in exchange for guilty pleas. Law Enforcement Officers shall notate charges removed and any time off applied in the reports.

If a citizen chooses to plead guilty to their charges, they may receive up to a 25% reduction of time that can be negotiated with the processing officer. If you have a public defender or legal representation in the cells, the amount of time that may be negotiated for is 50%. This reduction must be noted in the report by the Law Enforcement Officer processing the citizen.

These sections may stack with each other. Law Enforcement Officers must record any reductions and dropped charges as a result of negotiations or other circumstances in the Incident Report that contains the charges citizens are being charged with. Failure to do so may result in punitive actions from their respective high command, and criminal charges if the act is continuous. If an individual’s time reduction were to be in excess of their time to be served, they may be released from police custody after being fined.

Conclusion

The San Andreas Department of Justice believes in rehabilitation, and we believe that citizens should be able to have a system that they can fairly navigate. It is in the best interest of everyone that officers may engage in good faith negotiations with citizens facing charges to expedite the judicial process and allow the Public Defenders more chances to fairly represent their clients.

Signature(s)

𝕵𝖚𝖘𝖙𝖎𝖈𝖊 𝕭𝖗𝖎𝖙𝖙𝖆𝖓𝖞 𝕬𝖓𝖌𝖊𝖑, 𝖘𝖎𝖌𝖓𝖊𝖉 09/15/2024