§ 18B-501. Local ABC officers.
§ 18B‑501. Local ABCofficers.
(a) Appointment. Except as provided in subsection (f), each local board shall hire one or moreABC enforcement officers. Local ABC enforcement officers shall be designated as"ABC Officers". The local board may designate one officer as thechief ABC officer for that board.
(b) Subject MatterJurisdiction. After taking the oath prescribed for a peace officer, a localABC officer may arrest and take other investigatory and enforcement actions forany criminal offense; however, the primary responsibility of a local ABCofficer is enforcement of the ABC laws and Article 5 of Chapter 90 (TheControlled Substances Act).
(c) TerritorialJurisdiction. A local ABC officer has jurisdiction anywhere in the county inwhich he is employed except that a city ABC officer's territorial jurisdictionis subject to any limitation included in any local act governing that city ABCsystem. A local ABC officer may pursue outside his normal territorialjurisdiction anyone who commits an offense within that jurisdiction, asprovided in G.S. 15A‑402(d).
(d) Assisting OtherLocal Agencies. The local ABC officers employed by a local board shallconstitute a "law‑enforcement agency" for purposes of G.S. 160A‑288,and a local board shall have the same authority as a city or county governingbody to approve cooperation between law‑enforcement agencies under thatsection.
(e) Assisting State andFederal Enforcement. A local ABC officer may assist State and federal law‑enforcementagencies in the investigation of criminal offenses in North Carolina, under thefollowing conditions:
(1) The local boardemploying the officer has adopted a resolution approving such assistance andstating the conditions under which it may be provided;
(2) The State or federalagency has made a written request for assistance from that local board, eitherfor a particular investigation or for any investigation that might requireassistance within a certain period of time;
(3) The local ABCofficer is supervised by someone in the requesting agency; and
(4) As soon as practicalafter the assistance begins, an acknowledgement of the action is placed in therecords of the local board.
A local ABC officer shall haveterritorial jurisdiction throughout North Carolina while assisting a State orfederal agency under this section. While providing that assistance the officershall continue to be considered an employee of the local board for purposes ofsalary, worker's compensation, and other benefits, unless a differentarrangement is negotiated between the local board and the requesting agency.
(f) Contracts withOther Agencies. Instead of hiring local ABC officers, a local board maycontract to pay its enforcement funds to a sheriff's department, city policedepartment, or other local law‑enforcement agency for enforcement of theABC laws within the law‑enforcement agency's territorial jurisdiction.Enforcement agreements may be made with more than one agency at the same time.When such a contract for enforcement exists, the officers of the contractinglaw‑enforcement agency shall have the same authority to inspect underG.S. 18B‑502 that an ABC officer employed by that local board would have.If a city located in two or more counties approves the sale of some type ofalcoholic beverage pursuant to the provisions of G.S. 18B‑600(e4), andthere are no local ABC boards established in the city and one of the countiesin which the city is located, the local ABC board of any county in which thecity is located may enter into an enforcement agreement with the city's policedepartment for enforcement of the ABC laws within the entire city, includingthat portion of the city located in the county of the ABC board entering intothe enforcement agreement.
(g) Discharge. LocalABC officers are subject to the discharge provisions of G.S. 18B‑202. (1949, c. 1251, s. 4; 1961,c. 645; 1963, c. 426, s. 2; 1967, c. 868; 1971, c. 872, s. 1; 1973, c. 29;1977, c. 908; 1981, c. 412, s. 2; 1993, c. 193, s. 2; 1995, c. 466, ss. 3, 4.)