Code of Alabama

Ala. Code § 22-50-21 (2026)

Police Officers for State Mental Health Facilities or Hospitals.

✓ official Alabama Legislature (ALISON) text, current July 2026

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The State Mental Health Officer may appoint or employ one or more suitable persons to act as police officers to arrest intruders, trespassers, and persons guilty of improper or disorderly conduct on the property of state mental health facilities or hospitals. Such officers shall be charged with all the duties and invested with all the powers of police officers and may eject trespassers from the hospital grounds, buildings, or lands or arrest them and may, without warrant, arrest any person guilty of abuse of a patient, of a misdemeanor or disorderly conduct, of stealing or injuring property or other offenses committed on the lands or premises of the hospitals and take such person before a district court judge or other officer charged with trial of such offenders, before whom, upon proper affidavit charging the offense, the person so arrested shall be tried and, if found guilty, convicted as in cases of persons brought before such a court on a warrant. Such police officer shall have authority to summon a posse comitatus.

(Code 1896, §2570; Code 1907, §876; Code 1923, §1461; Code 1940, T. 45, §227.)

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 3 cases (1 in the last 5 years), 2002–2023 · leading case: Ex Parte Alabama Dept. of Mental Health & Mental Retardation, 840 So. 2d 876 (Ala. 2002).

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Ex Parte Alabama Dept. of Mental Health & Mental Retardation, 840 So. 2d 876 (Ala. 2002). “The Alabama Legislature vested BSI investigators with all the duties and the powers of police officers, see § 22-50-21, Ala.Code 1975, making BSI investigation reports subject to the provisions of § 12-21-3.”

Susan J. v. Riley, 616 F. Supp. 2d 1219 (M.D. Ala. 2009). “§ 22-50-21. In light of the foregoing, the Court finds that the Alabama Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation is an agency, department or instrumentality of the State, and is therefore entitled to Eleventh Amendment immunity in this case.”

Derrick James Williamson, Jr. v. Alabama Dep't of Mental Health & Mental Retardation (11th Cir. 2023). · cites it 2× “See Ala. Code § 22-50-21 (provid- ing that “[t]he State Mental Health Officer may appoint or employ one or more suitable persons to act as police officers .”

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