Request By:
Mr. Robert E. Gillum
Mitchell & Gillum
Camelot Building
117 North Main Street
Somerset, Kentucky 42501
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: James L. Dickinson, Assistant Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of April 24, requesting an opinion of this office as to the procedure necessary for an opinion of this office as to the procedure necesary for Mr. Collins and his partner to obtain the status of special policemen under KRS 61.360, and their authority to arrest on and off the property they are employed to protect.
KRS 61.360 requires an appointment by the Governor to obtain the status of special policeman. To receive such an appointment, the owner of the property seeking police services must send an application and ten dollars for each officer to be appointed, and the Governor shall immediately appoint the person recommended by the owner if the person is eligible under KRS 61.300 requirements. Previous opinions of this office have indicated that the provisions of KRS 61.360(2) restrict the police officer to the specific property for which his commission is issued (OAG's 40,492; 41,361; 41,132; 38, 546; 72-222). Therefore, it is the opinion of this office that Mr. Collins and his partner must receive a commission for every separate property they have been employed to protect.
You are further advised that, pursuant to KRS 61.360(2), "The duties of the officer shall be confined to the premises of the property to be protected, except while in pursuit of a person fleeing from the property after committing an act of violence or destruction of the property. In that case, the officer may pursue the person and make an arrest anywhere in the state." Further, under KRS 431.005, a peace officer is allowed to "make an arrest in obedience to a warrant, or without a warrant when a felony or misdemeanor is committed in his presence or when he has reasonable grounds to believe that the person being arrested has committed a felony."
If we may be of further assistance in this or in any matter, please feel free to call on us.