Delaware Code Title 11 Sec. 2411 – Hostage and barricade situations
(a) The Superintendent of the Delaware State Police or the commander of the law-enforcement agency of any political subdivision of this State may designate 1 or more law-enforcement officers as hostage and barricade communications specialists.
Terms Used In Delaware Code Title 11 Sec. 2411
- Communication common carrier: means any person engaged as a common carrier for hire in the transmission of wire or electronic communications. See Delaware Code Title 11 Sec. 2401
- Electronic communication: means any transfer of signs, signals, writing, images, sounds, data or intelligence of any electromagnetic, photoelectronic or photooptical system. See Delaware Code Title 11 Sec. 2401
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Person: means any employee or agent of this State or a political subdivision thereof, or any individual, partnership, association, joint stock company, trust or corporation. See Delaware Code Title 11 Sec. 2401
- Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
- State: means the State of Delaware; and when applied to different parts of the United States, it includes the District of Columbia and the several territories and possessions of the United States. See Delaware Code Title 1 Sec. 302
(b) Each communication common carrier providing service to Delaware residents shall designate 1 or more individuals to provide liaison with law-enforcement agencies for the purposes of this section.
(c) The supervising law-enforcement officer, who has jurisdiction in any situation in which there is probable cause to believe that a criminal enterprise involving hostage holding is occurring or that a person has barricaded himself or herself within a structure and poses an immediate threat of physical injury to others, may order a communication common carrier, or a communication common carrier’s employee, officer or director, or a hostage and barricade communications specialist to interrupt, reroute, divert or otherwise control any wire, oral or electronic communications service involved in the hostage or barricade situation for the purpose of preventing wire, oral or electronic communication by a hostage holder or barricaded person with any person other than a law-enforcement officer or a person authorized by the officer or for the purpose of otherwise monitoring communications in the hostage or barricade situation.
(d) A hostage and barricade communications specialist shall be ordered to act under subsection (c) of this section only if the communication common carrier providing service in the area has been contacted and requested to act under subsection (c) of this section and:
(1) Declines to respond to the officer’s request because of a threat of physical injury to its employees; or
(2) Indicates when contacted that it will be unable to respond appropriately to the officer’s request within a reasonable time from the receipt of the request.
(e) The supervising law-enforcement officer may give an order under subsection (c) of this section only after that supervising law-enforcement officer has given written or oral representation of the hostage or barricade situation to the communication common carrier providing service to the area in which it is occurring. If an order is given based on an oral representation, the oral representation shall be followed by a written confirmation of that representation within 48 hours of the order.
(f) Good faith reliance on an order by a supervising law-enforcement officer who has the real or apparent authority to issue an order under this section shall constitute a complete defense to any action against a communication common carrier or a communication common carrier’s employee, officer or director that arises out of attempts by the communication common carrier or the employee, officer or director of the communication common carrier to comply with such an order.
(g) For the purposes of this section, “supervising law-enforcement officer” means an officer having a rank equivalent to or greater than a lieutenant of any law-enforcement agency of the State or any political subdivision of the State.