A suitable and distinctive uniform shall be prescribed by the secretary. The secretary shall provide and issue to each commissioned officer a uniform and an appropriate badge which shall contain in plain legible letters the words "New Mexico state police". The prescribed uniform and badge shall be worn at all times when on duty, except when by direction of the chief or the governor, any member of the New Mexico state police is assigned to special duties. Uniform allowance and subsistence pay shall be established by the secretary and allowed in addition to a commissioned officer's salary and paid on a monthly basis to each commissioned officer of the division. The uniform allowance and subsistence pay shall be expended only for the purposes allowed and any portion of the uniform allowance or subsistence pay not so spent in each fiscal year shall revert to the general fund.

History: 1941 Comp., § 40-213, enacted by Laws 1941, ch. 147, § 13; 1953 Comp., § 39-2-13; Laws 1976, ch. 8, § 1; 1977, ch. 257, § 29; 1979, ch. 202, § 24; 1989, ch. 204, § 24.

The 1989 amendment, effective July 1, 1989, substituted "secretary" for "board" in the section heading and "secretary" for "New Mexico state police board" in the first sentence, deleted the former second and third sentences relating to establishment and expenditure of uniform allowance, substituted all of the language of the present second sentence preceding "which" for "The board shall also provide and issue to each member an appropriate badge and uniform", and added the last two sentences.

Section allows each officer to purchase own uniform. — This section indicates the legislative intention to allow each officer to purchase his own uniforms, since the phraseology cannot be said to even imply that the purchase of uniforms is to be made by the department pursuant to the State Purchasing Agent Act. 1964 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 64-134.