MUTUAL AID AND JURISDICTION

 

1.      The territorial jurisdiction of campus police officers includes all property owned or leased by to the institution and adjacent streets.

2.      Except in hot pursuit and transporting a prisoner, campus police officers, lose their status as law enforcement officers when they leave the jurisdiction.

3.      University property lines are difficult to determine, with property, leased and owned, scattered across the City of Raleigh, the City of Cary, and Wake County.

4.      Municipal police departments have a one-mile buffer outside of their city limits in which to exercise their arrest powers.  Most do not patrol the one mile buffer as a matter of city policy.

5.      There is no citizen arrest authority in North Carolina.

6.      While off university property, campus police officers can act only as an ordinary citizen. They can detain a person who commits, in their presence, a felony, a breach of the peace, a crime involving physical injury to another, or a crime involving theft or destruction of property.

7.      A person can resist an illegal arrest in North Carolina, i.e. a campus police officer tries to detain a person who has committed a felony on campus and is seen one-hour later two blocks off campus.  The person can use force to resist the detention and the officer could be charged with an assault if he touches the individual.

8.      Mutual aid agreements are governed by NC GS 160A-288.

9.      Under the statute, campus police agencies are considered the equivalent of a municipal police department. 

10. Mutual aid requests must be in writing.  Requests must come from the Police Chief or Sheriff.  The Chief or Sheriff may delegate, but only one person may be responsible at any given time.

11. Mutual aid requests are generally for single events such as a celebration, Presidential visit, football game, etc, or for long term events such as an undercover operation or a state of emergency. 

  1. Under a mutual aid agreement, the assisting police officer operates under the command of the requesting agency, i.e. Raleigh requests NC State assistance for a celebration, the NC State officer is under the direction of the Raleigh Commander.
  2. Mutual aid is neither intended nor practical to be used for normal day-to-day law enforcement activities.  As an example, a student who reports that he has been assaulted and robbed on campus approaches an NC State police officer.  The student identifies the suspect and the NC State officer locates the suspect two blocks off campus.  The officer cannot take any action under mutual aid, unless the Raleigh Police Chief e-mails the NC State Police Chief and requests our assistance.