§20-7-2. Qualifications of natural resources police officers; right of retired officer to receive complete standard uniform; right of retired officer to acquire uniform; and right of retired officer to acquire badge.

In addition to civil service qualifications and requirements, persons selected as natural resources police officers shall have reached their eighteenth birthday at the time of appointment, be in good physical condition and of good moral character, temperate in habits and may not have been convicted of a felony. Whenever possible and practicable, preference in selection of natural resources police officers shall be given honorably discharged United States Military personnel. Each natural resources police officer, before entering upon the discharge of his or her duties, shall take and subscribe to the oath of office prescribed in article IV, section 5 of the Constitution of West Virginia, which executed oath shall be filed with the director.

The director shall prescribe the kind, style and material of uniforms to be worn by natural resources police officers. Uniforms and other equipment furnished to the natural resources police officers are and remain the property of the state, except as hereinafter provided in this section.

A natural resources police officer, upon honorable retirement, is authorized to maintain at his or her own cost a complete standard uniform from the law-enforcement agency of which he or she was a member, and shall be issued an identification card indicating his or her honorable retirement from the law-enforcement agency. The uniform may be worn by the officer in retirement only on the following occasions: Police Officer's Memorial Day, Law Enforcement Appreciation Day, at the funeral of a law-enforcement officer or during any other police ceremony. The honorably retired officer is authorized to acquire a badge of the law-enforcement agency from which he or she is retired with the word "retired" placed on it.