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PARKERSBURG — A proposed bill being drawn up to be submitted during the next session of the West Virginia Legislature would allow officers from neighboring jurisdictions and states to be able to be deputized to operate in West Virginia.

Wood County Sheriff Rick Woodyard is working with Delegate Scot Heckert, R-Wood, to draft the proposed bill which would be submitted in the upcoming 2026 West Virginia Legislature which starts next week.

This is one of two bills the West Virginia Sheriff’s Association, which Woodyard is vice president of, is looking to present to the lawmakers to be presented during the session. The other bill deals with school protection officers.

The jurisdiction bill is currently being drafted and they are looking for additional lawmakers to sponsor it, Woodyard said.

“Criminal activity does not stop at county or state lines, yet current law limits the ability of law enforcement agencies to respond quickly and collaboratively across borders,” Woodyard said in a letter to state lawmakers. “This bill would authorize West Virginia law enforcement agencies that choose to do so to enter into mutual aid agreements with agencies in adjoining states and neighboring counties.”

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Woodyard said the bill, if passed and signed into law, would allow law enforcement agencies in states that border West Virginia – including Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia and Maryland – to enter into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with an agency in West Virginia to participate in investigations, task forces and other operations in West Virginia or to provide assistance to officers right across the border when West Virginia agencies are further away and would take longer to respond.

If an officer in Williamstown needed assistance, dispatchers at the Wood County 911 Center could request assistance from the Marietta Police Department or the Washington County Sheriff’s Department to help immediately until West Virginia units would be able to respond.

Woodyard said he has known Washington County Sheriff Mark Warden for a long time and the two have discussed this possibility often over the years. They had meetings with local law enforcement officials in Wood, Washington and Pleasants counties and elsewhere.

“We were looking at different mechanisms to allow us to do that,” Woodyard said. “We decided to go ahead and draft a bill that would allow us to reciprocate the ability to deputize them as they can us in Ohio.”

Ohio already has something in place to allow these kinds of joint operations.

This bill would codify the practice in West Virginia “to make it binding,” Heckert said.

“This cleans up language and makes it right to be able to do it,” he said.

Woodyard believes the proposed bill would help with response times and helping officers on both sides of the border.

“This authority would significantly improve emergency response times and officer safety,” he said in his letter. “The bill would also strengthen multi-state task forces working on narcotics trafficking, violent crime, and organized criminal activity that routinely cross jurisdictional boundaries.

“Simply put, this legislation allows law enforcement to operate in the same coordinated manner as the criminals they pursue.”