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<law><site_title>Virginia Decoded</site_title><site_url>https://vacode.org</site_url><law_id>85066</law_id><section_number>53.1-143</section_number><catch_line>How officers authorized</catch_line><edition url="https://vacode.org/2025/" slug="2025" current="TRUE" last_updated="">2025</edition><referred_to_by><reference>18.2-308.03</reference><reference>18.2-57.01</reference><reference>51.1-212</reference></referred_to_by><structure><unit label="title" level="1" order_by="1" identifier="53.1">Prisons and Other Methods of Correction</unit><unit label="chapter" level="2" order_by="1" identifier="4">Probation and Parole</unit><unit label="article" level="3" order_by="1" identifier="2">State Probation and Parole Services</unit></structure><text>
						<section><p>The <span class="dictionary">Director</span> shall employ officers to carry out the powers and duties prescribed in &#xA7;&#xA0;<a class="law" title="Powers and duties of probation and parole officers" href="/53.1-145/">53.1-145</a> and elsewhere in this article. The <span class="dictionary">Director</span> shall submit the names of eligible officers to the <span class="dictionary">judge</span> or <span class="dictionary">judges</span> of the judicial <span class="dictionary">circuit</span> where the officer is initially assigned to be authorized to act as an officer of the <span class="dictionary">court</span>.
		The <span class="dictionary">judge</span> or <span class="dictionary">judges</span> of the judicial <span class="dictionary">circuit</span> to which an officer is assigned shall authorize the officer to serve as an officer of the <span class="dictionary">court</span> to carry out the power and duties prescribed in &#xA7;&#xA0;<a class="law" title="Powers and duties of probation and parole officers" href="/53.1-145/">53.1-145</a> and elsewhere in this article. When the area of a <span class="dictionary">probation</span> and <span class="dictionary">parole</span> district lies in two or more judicial <span class="dictionary">circuits</span>, the <span class="dictionary">probation</span> and <span class="dictionary">parole</span> officers shall be authorized by joint action of the <span class="dictionary">judges</span> of the several <span class="dictionary">circuits</span>. If there are more than two such <span class="dictionary">judges</span>, a majority vote shall control the authorization.
		Whenever the authorization is to be made by two <span class="dictionary">judges</span> and they fail to agree within 60 days of the <span class="dictionary">Director</span>&#x2019;s assignment of such officer, the <span class="dictionary">Director</span> shall authorize the officer to serve the judicial <span class="dictionary">circuits</span> of the Commonwealth.
		The authorization of an officer by the judicial <span class="dictionary">circuit</span> to which the officer is initially assigned shall be valid in all judicial <span class="dictionary">circuits</span> in the Commonwealth regardless of subsequent assignments.</p></section></text><history>Code 1950, &#xA7; 53-244; 1970, c. 648; 1973, c. 253; 1974, cc. 44, 45; 1979, c. 700; 1982, c. 636; 1984, c. 514; 2003, c. 944.</history><metadata></metadata></law>
