2021 West Virginia Code
Chapter 8. Municipal Corporations
Article 14. Law and Order; Police Force or Departments; Powers, Authority and Duties of Law-Enforcement Officials and Policemen; Police Matrons; Special School Zone and Parking Lot or Parking Building Police Officers; Civil Service for Certain Police Departments
§8-14-24. Right to Receive Complete Standard Uniform; Right to Acquire Badge; and Right to Keep Service Weapon
(a) A police officer, upon honorable retirement, is authorized to maintain at his or her own cost a complete standard uniform from the law-enforcement agency of which he or she was a member and shall be issued an identification card indicating his or her honorable retirement from the law-enforcement agency. The uniform may be worn by the officer in retirement only on the following occasions: Police Officer's Memorial Day, Law-Enforcement Appreciation Day, at the funeral of a law-enforcement officer or during any other police ceremony. The honorably retired officer is authorized to acquire a badge of the law-enforcement agency from which he or she is retired with the word "retired" placed on it.
(b) Upon retirement, a police officer is entitled to keep, without charge, his or her service weapon after a determination by the chief of police:
(1) That the police officer is retiring honorably with at least twenty years of recognized law-enforcement service; or
(2) That the police officer is retiring with less than twenty years of service and that he or she is totally physically disabled as a result of service as a police officer.
(c) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (b) of this section, the chief of police may not award a service weapon to any police officer who has been declared mentally incompetent by a licensed physician or a court of law, or who, in the opinion of the chief of police, constitutes a danger to any person or the community.
