Request By:
Hon. John E. Heer, III
Assistant University Attorney
Legal Affairs Office
University of Louisville
Louisville, Kentucky 40208
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: George Geoghegan, III, Assistant Attorney General
This is in reply to your letter in which you made the following inquiries:
"1) Need the University of Louisville Department of Public Safety obtain an agreement with or a request from the Sheriff of Jefferson County before its officers are authorized to serve civil process at off-campus locations, or is KRS 164.955 authorization in itself?
2) When properly authorized to serve civil process (by agreement or request, if necessary), do officers of the University of Louisville Department of Public Safety possess all the arrest and self-protection powers of sheriffs and police officers in Jefferson County, Kentucky?"
A safety and security officer is authorized to exercise general police powers including the power of arrest. KRS 164.955(1). However, the officer is authorized to do so only upon the real property owned by the public institution appointing the officer as well as the streets passing through said real property or adjacent thereto. KRS 164.955(1)(b). In addition, the general police powers including the power to arrest can be extended beyond the real property of the institution only upon fulfillment of any of the conditions specified in KRS 164.955(2).
In OAG 75-181, a copy of which is included herein, we opined that the conditions need not be in any particular form. In other words they may be either written or oral.
Although a safety and security officer of your institution is authorized to exercise general police powers at off-campus locations when the conditions of KRS 164.955(2) are fulfilled, there still is another condition which must be satisfied before the security officer is authorized to serve process. Under KRS 164.955(1) in order for the safety and security officers to be authorized to serve process even on institutional property they must be empowered by a specific grant of the employing governing board of the institution.
In answer to your first question, KRS 164.955 is not sufficient authorization in itself to permit your safety and security officers to serve civil process at off-campus locations. Your officers must satisfy the conditions set out in KRS 164.955(2) and they must also receive specific authorization from your governing board before they are authorized to serve civil process at off-campus locations.
In answer to your second question, we opine that your officers when properly authorized by the University governing board do possess all the powers of arrest and self-protection of sheriffs and police officers in Jefferson County. However, these powers cannot be any greater than the peace officer who has authorized your safety officer to act beyond the bounds of the University campus.