The Secretary may designate special police officers, and those officers get specified arrest and enforcement powers subject to territorial and agreement-based limits.
(a)The Secretary may designate one or more special police officers who shall make up a joint security force to enforce the law of North Carolina and any ordinance or regulation adopted pursuant to G.S. 143-116.6 or G.S. 143-116.7 or pursuant to the authority granted the Department by any other law on the territory of the Long Leaf Neuro-Medical Treatment Center in Wilson County. After taking the oath of office for law enforcement officers as set out in G.S. 11-11, these special police officers have the same powers as peace officers now vested in sheriffs within the territory embraced by the Long Leaf Neuro-Medical Treatment Center. These special police officers may arrest persons outside the territory of the Long Leaf Neuro-Medical Treatment Center, but within the confines of Wilson County when the person arrested has committed a criminal offense within that territory for which the officers could have arrested the person within that territory, and the arrest is made during the person’s immediate and continuous flight from that territory. (b)These special police officers may exercise any and all of the powers enumerated in this Part upon the property of, or in pursuit from, the Eastern North Carolina School for the Deaf only by agreement of the Department of Public Instruction and the Department of Health and Human Services. (c)Upon assignment by the Secretary, or Secretary’s designee, to any State-operated facility pursuant to G.S. 122C-183, these special police officers may exercise the same power enumerated in this Part within the territory of the named facility and within the county in which the facility is located. History: History.2009-315, s. 3; 2019-240, s. 19(f).