The following opinion is presented on-line for informational use only and does not replace the official version. (Mich Dept of Attorney General Web Site - www.ag.state.mi.us) STATE OF MICHIGAN FRANK J. KELLEY, ATTORNEY GENERAL Opinion No. 6876 October 19, 1995 MICHIGAN LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS TRAINING COUNCIL ACT OF 1965: Certification as a law enforcement officer An individual with an expunged felony conviction is not eligible for certification as a law enforcement officer under 1995 MR 6, R 28.4102(d). Mr. Patrick Judge Executive Director Michigan Law Enforcement Officers Training Council 7426 North Canal Road Lansing, MI You have asked if an individual with an expunged felony conviction is eligible for certification as a law enforcement officer under 1995 MR 6, R 28.4102(d). Certification of law enforcement officers is governed by the Michigan Law Enforcement Officers Training Council Act of 1965, MCL 28.601 et seq; MSA 4.450(1) et seq. Section 9(1)(a) of that act empowers the Michigan Law Enforcement Council to establish minimum standards of moral fitness for the recruitment, selection and appointment of law enforcement officers. Accordingly, the Council has adopted an administrative rule requiring that a person employed as a police officer under the act shall "[h]ave no prior felony convictions." 1995 MR 6, R 28.4102(d). The Michigan statute authorizing the setting aside of certain criminal convictions, MCL 780.621 et seq; MSA 28.1274(101) et seq, allows a person who has been convicted of a felony to petition the convicting court to set the conviction aside. Section 2(1) of the act provides that a person whose conviction is set aside "shall be considered not to have been previously convicted, except as provided in this section and section 3." (Emphasis added.) In turn, section 3(2) authorizes a law enforcement agency to have access to the conviction when a person applies for employment with that agency, as follows: (2) The department of state police shall retain a nonpublic record of the order setting aside a conviction and of the record of the arrest, fingerprints, conviction, and sentence of the applicant in the case to which the order applies. Except as provided in subsection (3), this nonpublic record shall be made available only to a court of competent jurisdiction, an agency of the judicial branch of state government, a law enforcement agency, a prosecuting attorney, the attorney general, or the governor upon request and only for the following purposes: (e) Consideration by a law enforcement agency if a person whose conviction has been set aside applies for employment with the law enforcement agency. [Emphasis added.] By the plain terms of the act quoted above, a person whose felony conviction is set aside is considered to have been previously convicted when he or she applies for employment with a law enforcement agency. If the plain and ordinary meaning of the language used in a statute is clear, then no judicial construction is required or permitted. In re Lee Estate, 193 Mich App 586, 589; 484 NW2d 411 (1992). Thus, it must be concluded that a person whose felony conviction has been set aside cannot meet the certification requirements for law enforcement officers under 1995 MR 6, R 28.4102(d). It is my opinion, therefore, that an individual with an expunged felony conviction is not eligible for certification as a law enforcement officer under 1995 MR 6, R 28.4102(d). Frank J. Kelley Attorney General