(a) The commission shall establish a certification program for peace officers specified in Sections 13510 and 13522 and for the California Highway Patrol. Certificates of the commission established pursuant to this section shall be considered professional certificates.

(b) Basic, intermediate, advanced, supervisory, management, and executive certificates shall be established for the purpose of fostering professionalization, education, and experience necessary to adequately accomplish the general police service duties performed by peace officer members of city police departments, county sheriffs’ departments, districts, university and state university and college departments, or by the California Highway Patrol.

(c) (1) Certificates shall be awarded on the basis of a combination of training, education, experience, and other prerequisites, as determined by the commission.

(2) In determining whether an applicant for certification has the requisite education, the commission shall recognize as acceptable college education only the following:

(A) Education provided by a community college, college, or university which has been accredited by the department of education of the state in which the community college, college, or university is located or by a recognized national or regional accrediting body.

(B) Until January 1, 1998, educational courses or degrees provided by a nonaccredited but state-approved college that offers programs exclusively in criminal justice.

(d) Persons who are determined by the commission to be eligible peace officers may make application for the certificates, provided they are employed by an agency which participates in the Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) program.

(e) The commission shall have the authority to cancel any certificate that has been obtained through misrepresentation or fraud or that was issued as the result of an administrative error on the part of the commission or the employing agency.

(Amended by Stats. 2003, Ch. 297, Sec. 4. Effective January 1, 2004.)