Security Officers Training Academy v. Commonwealth
Security Officers Training Academy v. Commonwealth
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
After finding that there were detectives, investigators, watchmen and security guards privately employed in the Commonwealth who carry lethal weapons and that accidents have occurred because of the unfamiliarity of these individuals with the handling of weapons, the General Assembly adopted the Lethal Weapons Training Act
The matter presently before us is a petition for review presented by the Security Officers Training Academy calling into question the propriety of an order of the Commissioner of State Police made January 24, 1977 revoking, or in the word of the statute “withdrawing,” a certificate issued September 17,
A peculiarity of the case is that the nature of Security Officers Training Academy, as an entity, is nowhere expressly stated in the record. Its assets appear, however, to be the property certainly of Joseph L. Robinson and perhaps of Robinson and other individuals who have provided financing. Robinson is described in this appeal as the president of the Academy and the person who a witness described as “the boss” and identified as the person who signed checks on the Academy’s bank account. It is clear that Robinson controlled the enterprise’s inadequate funds; that Burns paid Security Officers Training Academy by check the sum of $1077.80 for the October, 1976 session, before it learned of Saddler’s imposture; and that Robinson wrote checks against this payment after it was deposited, including several made payable to Saddler.
After hearing this and other evidence the Hearing-Board, constituted as hereinbefore described, understandably concluded that the petitioner’s certificate to conduct a training- school providing the instruction required by the Lethal Weapons Training Act had been properly revoked by the Commissioner and recommended the continuance of this state of affairs. In addition to the violations of the Act committed by Security Officers Training Academy implicit in its conduct, of permitting- its Director to give courses which he was not certified to teach while posing as another, qualified
The petitioner, which at the hearing stipulated to its Director’s misdeeds with respect to the Burns courses, argues that its license should not be revoked because, as we understand its thesis, it was not established by direct evidence that Joseph L. Robinson had actual knowledge of the Director’s activities in York. In the first place, it was the Security Officers Training Academy which was licensed, not Mr. Robinson. Further, there is telling circumstantial evidence in support of the inference that Mr. Robinson indeed knew of what was going on in York in the deposit of the Burns’ check in the petitioner’s bank account and in Robinson’s prompt use of most of this balance, much of it going to Saddler whose activities in York produced the money. At the very least, the record reveals Robinson, who by his contention that proof was required of his involvement in the affair at York concedes that his was a dominant role in the petitioner’s affairs, was profoundly inattentive to, if not unconcerned with, the proper conduct of the Academy’s business. Considering the importance to the safety of others of the competence of persons licensed to carry and use firearms in their employment, the violations of instructional requirements committed by the Security Officers Training Academy, were no mere peccadil
The petitioner in a discursive brief makes a number of attacks on the Lethal Weapons Training Act, the Commissioner’s regulations, and the procedures employed by the State agency in this case. None has merit. It first says that its constitutional right to procedural due process was violated by the revocation of its license without affording it a prior evidentiary hearing. In Matthews v. Eldridge, 424 U.S. 319 (1976) the United States Supreme Court held that procedural due process did not require the grant of an evidentiary hearing prior to the termination of social security disability payments. The Supreme Court said that the constitutional sufficiency of administrative procedures prior to administrative action requires the consideration of three factors: (1) the private interest affected; (2) the risk of an erroneous deprivation of the private interest through the procedures used; and (3) the government’s interest. Here, the Commissioner’s pre-revocation investigation together with the Commissioner’s regulations providing for applications for reconsideration of revocation action and for hearing on the merits sufficiently reduced the risk of an erroneous deprivation of licenses. Further, the requirement of an evidentiary hearing prior to revoca-' tion would unduly restrict the government in regulating instruction in the use of lethal weapons, a matter seriously affecting public safety. In short, the procedures here employed provided the appellant procedural due process. See also Dixon v. Love, 431 U.S. 105 (1977).
The petitioner next says that the hearing was unfair because two of the members of the Hearing Board were employed by the Commissioner and because two State policemen participated in the trial. We do not
Contrary to the petitioner’s next assertion, there are ample standards provided by the Lethal Weapons Training Act for the exercise of the Commissioner’s power to grant or withdraw licenses to schools desiring to provide the training required by the Act. The subjects to be taught and learned are stated in Section 2, 22 P.S. §42, to be the handling of lethal weapons, knowledge of law enforcement and the protection of rights of citizens. Again in Section 5, 22 P.S. §45, the instruction to be implemented and administered by the Commissioner are stated to be weapons handling, law enforcement and citizens’ rights. The Commissioner’s regulations to which we have earlier adverted cover licensing of schools and instructors, content of courses and other appropriate details.
Although we find no argument made in the petitioner’s brief to the effect that there was here an impermissible commingling in one person of the prosecutive and adjudicative functions in the procedures provided in this case, its counsel at our hearing argued from Dussia, v. Barger, 466 Pa. 152, 351 A.2d 667 (1976). The respondent in its brief effectively dis
We therefore affirm the Commissioner’s order.
Order
And Now, this 2nd day of February, 1979, the Commissioner’s order made January 24, 1977 is affirmed.
Act of October 10, 1974, P.L. 705, as amended, 22 P.S. §41 et seq.
An inquiry by the writer of this opinion with the State Bureau of Corporations elicited the information (which is here provided only as a matter of interest) that it has no record of a corporation by the name Security Officers Training Academy but that the name is registered as a Fictitious Name of a business owned by Joseph L. Robinson and one Andrew Johnson.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.