15.2-1725 - Extending police power of localities over lands lying beyond boundaries thereof; jurisdiction of courts.
§ 15.2-1725. Extending police power of localities over lands lying beyondboundaries thereof; jurisdiction of courts.
Any locality owning and operating an airport, public hospital, sanitarium,nursing home, public water supply or watershed, public park, recreationalarea, sewage disposal plant or system, public landing, dock, wharf or canal,public school, public utility, public buildings and other public propertylocated beyond the limits of the locality shall have and may exercise fullpolice power over the property, and over persons using the property, and may,by ordinance, prescribe rules for the operation and use of the property andfor the conduct of all persons using the property and may, further, providepenalties for the violation of such rules contained in an ordinance; suchpenalties, however, shall not exceed those provided by general law formisdemeanors. However, no ordinances in conflict with an ordinance of thejurisdiction wherein the property is located shall be enacted.
Any locality which maintains or operates in whole or in part any propertyenumerated in this section may lawfully send its law-enforcement officers tothe property owned beyond the limits of the locality for the purpose ofprotecting the property, keeping order therein, or otherwise enforcing thelaws of the Commonwealth and ordinances of the locality owning the propertyas such laws and ordinances may relate to the operation and use thereof. Thelaw-enforcement officer shall have power to make an arrest for a violation ofany law or ordinance relating to the operation and use of the property. Thedistrict court in the city or town where the offense occurs shall havejurisdiction of all cases arising therein, and the district court of thecounty where the offense occurs shall have jurisdiction of all cases arisingtherein.
It shall be the duty of the attorney for the Commonwealth for the localitywherein the offense occurs to prosecute all violators of the ordinances ofthe locality that pertain to the operation and use of the property enumeratedin this section.
(Code 1950, § 15-560.1; 1952, c. 382; 1962, c. 623, § 15.1-142; 1979, c. 333;1997, c. 587.)