§41-27-3. Secretary - Powers and duties; Protective Services Unit; employees.

(a) The Secretary of the Alabama State Law Enforcement Agency shall establish general policies for the Department of Public Safety and the State Bureau of Investigations.

(b) The secretary shall coordinate efforts within the Alabama State Law Enforcement Agency and the entities therein to promote the recruitment, selection, and training of state law enforcement officers in the agency.

(c)(1) A Protective Services Unit is created in the office of the secretary. The unit is vested with all functions of the Dignitary Protection Services of the Department of Public Safety, and a reference in any law to the Dignitary Protection Services of the Department of Public Safety shall be deemed a reference to the Protective Services Unit.

(2) The secretary shall appoint a chief of the unit from a legacy agency as defined in Section 41-27-7.

(d) Investigators employed on January 1, 2015, by the State Office of Prosecution Services as computer forensics investigators/analysts in the Alabama Computer Forensics Labs shall be transferred to the Alabama Fusion Center and shall receive a rank and classification in the state Merit System equivalent to their current employment rank or years of service.

(Act 2013-67, p. 130, §3.)