2006 Code of Virginia § 18.2-50.2 - Emergency control of telephone service in hostage or barricaded person situation

18.2-50.2. Emergency control of telephone service in hostage or barricadedperson situation.

A. The Superintendent of the State Police or the chief law-enforcementofficer or sheriff of any county, city or town may designate one or morelaw-enforcement officers with appropriate technical training or expertise asa hostage and barricade communications specialist.

B. Each telephone company providing service to Virginia residents shalldesignate a department or one or more individuals to provide liaison withlaw-enforcement agencies for the purposes of this section and shall designatetelephone numbers, not exceeding two, at which such law-enforcement liaisondepartment or individual can be contacted.

C. The supervising law-enforcement officer, who has jurisdiction in anysituation in which there is probable cause to believe that the criminalenterprise of hostage holding is occurring or that a person has barricadedhimself within a structure and poses an immediate threat to the life, safetyor property of himself or others, may order a telephone company, or a hostageand barricade communications specialist to interrupt, reroute, divert, orotherwise control any telephone communications service involved in thehostage or barricade situation for the purpose of preventing telephonecommunication by a hostage holder or barricaded person with any person otherthan a law-enforcement officer or a person authorized by the officer.

D. A hostage and barricade communication specialist shall be ordered to actunder subsection C only if the telephone company providing service in thearea has been contacted and requested to act under subsection C or an attemptto contact has been made, using the telephone company's designated liaisontelephone numbers and:

1. The officer's attempt to contact after ten rings for each call isunsuccessful;

2. The telephone company declines to respond to the officer's request becauseof a threat of personal injury to its employees; or

3. The telephone company indicates when contacted that it will be unable torespond appropriately to the officer's request within a reasonable time fromthe receipt of the request.

E. The supervising law-enforcement officer may give an order under subsectionC only after that supervising law-enforcement officer has given or attemptedto give written notification or oral notification of the hostage or barricadesituation to the telephone company providing service to the area in which itis occurring. If an order is given on the basis of an oral notice, the oralnotice shall be followed by a written confirmation of that notice withinforty-eight hours of the order.

F. Good faith reliance on an order by a supervising law-enforcement officerwho has the real or apparent authority to issue an order under this sectionshall constitute a complete defense to any action against a telephone companyor a telephone company employee that rises out of attempts by the telephonecompany or the employees of the telephone company to comply with such anorder.

(1992, c. 479.)