§ 42-11.3-1. Definitions. As used in this chapter, the following terms have the following meanings unless otherwise specified:

(1) "General officer" means the governor, the lieutenant governor, the attorney general, the secretary of state, and the general treasurer.

(2)(i) "Governmental body" means any department, commission, council, board, bureau, committee, institution, legislative body, agency, government corporation, including, without limitation, the council on postsecondary education and council on elementary and secondary education or other establishment of the executive, legislative or judicial branch of the state.

(ii) "Governmental body" also means the Rhode Island industrial recreational building authority, the Rhode Island commerce corporation, the Rhode Island industrial facilities corporation, the Rhode Island refunding bond authority, the Rhode Island housing and mortgage finance corporation, the Rhode Island solid waste management corporation, the Rhode Island public transit authority, the Rhode Island student loan authority, the Howard development corporation, the water resources board, the Rhode Island health and education building corporation, the Rhode Island turnpike and bridge authority, the Blackstone Valley district commission, the Narragansett Bay water quality management district commission, Rhode Island telecommunications authority, the convention center authority, channel 36 foundation, their successors and assigns, and any other body corporate and politic which has been here before or which is hereinafter created or established within this state excepting cities and towns.

(3) "Own" means control and the intent to control and includes any type of arrangement, including by way of illustration, and not by limitation, a lease arrangement, whereby an employee of a governmental body is supplied principal or exclusive use of a motor vehicle by his or her employer.

(4) "Law enforcement officer" means an individual: (i) who is employed on a full-time basis by a governmental body that is responsible for the prevention or investigation of crime involving injury to persons or property (including the apprehension or detention of persons for such crimes); (ii) who is authorized by law to carry firearms, execute search warrants, and to make arrests (other than merely a citizen's arrest); and (iii) who regularly carries firearms (except when it is not possible to do so because of the requirements of undercover work). The term law enforcement officer shall include an arson investigator if the investigator otherwise meets these requirements.

(5) "Commuting" means driving a motor vehicle owned by a governmental body to and from the work place and the employee's residence.

(6) "Employee" means an individual who works for a governmental body not less than thirty-five (35) hours a week.

History of Section. (P.L. 1991, ch. 44, art. 68, § 1; P.L. 2000, ch. 100, § 1; P.L. 2015, ch. 141, art. 7, § 17.)