O.C.G.A.
O.C.G.A.

O.C.G.A. § 36-8-5 (2019)

Powers of county police generally

✓ O.C.G.A. — 2019 edition (Public.Resource.Org Release 73)
Code text and O.C.G.A. statutory annotations on this page reflect the 2019 Official Code of Georgia Annotated (Public.Resource.Org Release 73, 2019-08-21; public domain per Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). The Syfert case-law annotations in Notes of Decisions, below, are current.
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Under the direction and control of the county governing authority, the county police shall have: (1) The same power to make arrests and to execute and return criminal warrants and processes in the county of their election or appointment only, as sheriffs have; and (2) All the powers of sheriffs as peace officers in the county of their election or appointment.

History

Ga. L. 1909, p. 156, § 3; Civil Code 1910, § 851; Ga. L. 1914, p.

142, § 3; Code 1933, § 23-1403; Ga. L. 1961, p. 217, § 1.

Annotations

JUDICIAL DECISIONS Grant of power to Jekyll Island-State Park Authority not exclusive. - This section does not give Jekyll Island-State Park Authority exclusive police power, including law enforcement on Jekyll Island nor does the statute prohibit Glynn County police from exercising the powers granted the county officers by this section. Ferguson v. Leggett, 226 Ga. 333, 174 S.E.2d 913 (1970). Duties and powers of deputy sheriff. - Office of sheriff carries with the office the duty to preserve the peace and protect the lives, persons, property, health, and morals of the people, and a deputy sheriff is an agent of the sheriff and in effecting the proper discharge of the deputy’s duties is empowered with the same duties and powers. Veit v. State, 182 Ga. App. 753, 357 S.E.2d 113 (1987). Warrantless arrest outside territorial limits. - Deputy sheriff had authority to make a warrantless arrest beyond the territorial limits of the deputy’s own county. Watkins v. State, 207 Ga. App. 766, 430 S.E.2d 105 (1993), overruled on

other grounds, West v. Waters, 272 Ga. 591, 533 S.E.2d 88 (2000). Effect on powers of sheriff. - Even when a county police force is established, the power and authority of the sheriff to enforce the law and preserve the peace is not legally diminished. Wolfe v. Huff, 232 Ga. 44, 205 S.E.2d 254 (1974). Fact that officers are outside jurisdiction does not make officers private citizens. - Fact that state officers making a warrantless search were, at the time of the search, outside of the officers’ state-granted jurisdiction does not make such officers, thereby, merely private citizens so as to enable the federal government to freely use anything that was discovered by the state officers as evidence in a federal prosecution which would otherwise have been inadmissible. United States v. Hogue, 283 F. Supp. 846 (N.D. Ga. 1968). Cited in Stone v. National Sur. Corp., 57 Ga. App. 427, 195 S.E. 905 (1938); McCarty v. State, 152 Ga. App. 726, 263 S.E.2d 700 (1979).

OPINIONS OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL Powers of arrest. - Arresting powers of county police are confined to the county of appointment or election. 1960-61 Op. Att’y Gen. p. 62. Power to arrest on state property. - Within the limits of their respective territorial or statutory jurisdiction, local law enforcement authorities may arrest offenders upon state property for violations of state laws, including property under the jurisdiction of the Georgia Building Authority Police. 1992 Op. Att’y Gen. No. 92-6. Power to return prisoner from outside county. - County police under former Code 1933, § 23-1403 (see now O.C.G.A. § 36-8-5) were authorized to go from the county of appointment to another

county within the limits of the state to receive a prisoner who was under arrest and detention and return such prisoner to the county of appointment, according to former Code 1933, § 27-209 (see now O.C.G.A. § 17-4-25). 1958-59 Op. Att’y Gen. p. 73. Misdemeanor cases. - County police officer has the same authority as the sheriff in those cases once the defendant is arrested under a warrant charging a misdemeanor, so long as the prisoner is in the police officer’s custody; if the county police officer turns the prisoner over to the sheriff without bail, it would thereafter be the responsibility of the sheriff to accept bail. 1962 Op. Att’y Gen. p. 63.

RESEARCH REFERENCES Am. Jur. 2d. - 70 Am. Jur. 2d, Sheriffs, Police, and Constables, § 31 et seq. C.J.S. - 20 C.J.S., Counties, §§ 196, 207.

ALR. - Degree of force that may be employed in arresting one charged with a misdemeanor, 42 A.L.R. 1200.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 10 cases, 1986–2006 · leading case: Grech v. Clayton Cnty., GA, 335 F.3d 1326 (11th Cir. 2003).
Sort: Relevance Newest Treatment
Grech v. Clayton Cnty., GA, 335 F.3d 1326 (11th Cir. 2003). · cites it 2× “” O.C.G.A. § 36-8-5. County police officers have “[t]he same power to make arrests and to execute and return criminal warrants and processes in the county of their election or appointment .”
State v. Harber, 401 S.E.2d 57 (Ga. Ct. App. 1990). · cites it 8× “See generally OCGA §§ 36-8-5; 40-13-30. However, it is not the territorial authority of campus police officers to make an arrest that is in question.”
State v. Giangregorio, 352 S.E.2d 193 (Ga. Ct. App. 1986). · cites it 4× “Under OCGA § 36-8-5 (1), the county police have "[t]he same power to make arrests and to execute and return criminal warrants and processes in the county of their election or appointment only, as sheriffs have .”
Veit v. State, 357 S.E.2d 113 (Ga. Ct. App. 1987). · cites it 2× “See OCGA § 36-8-5; Archer v. Aristocrat Ice Cream Co.”
Hudgins v. State, 374 S.E.2d 566 (Ga. Ct. App. 1988). · cites it 4× “" County police, including the county sheriff, have general police power to investigate and make arrests (OCGA § 36-8-5) as other law enforcement officials.”
Willingham v. State, 401 S.E.2d 63 (Ga. Ct. App. 1990). · cites it 4× “See OCGA § 35-2-33 (state patrol); OCGA § 36-8-5 (county police); OCGA § 35-3-8 (GBI agents); OCGA § 35-3-9 (GBI narcotics agents).”
Perry v. State, 419 S.E.2d 922 (Ga. Ct. App. 1992). · cites it 2× “County police, including the county sheriff, have general police power to investigate and make arrests (OCGA § 36-8-5; see OCGA § 15-16-10 (a) (8); § 17-4-27) as other law enforcement officials (OCGA § 17-4-20 (a)).”
Manders v. Lee, 285 F.3d 983 (11th Cir. 2002). “” O.C.G.A. § 36-8-5. The fact that the county may have its own county police department is further indicia of how independent the sheriffs office is from the county.”
Willie Santonio Manders v. Thurman Lee, 338 F.3d 1304 (11th Cir. 2002). · cites it 2× “If the referendum passes, the county governing body controls the hiring and removal of its county police, including the county police chief, and may "abolish a county police force at any time.”
Johnson v. Fayette Cnty., 635 S.E.2d 35 (Ga. 2006). · cites it 2× “” The plain language of this resolution, which tracks the language in OCGA § 36-8-5 (general powers of county police), demonstrates that by its adoption the Board intended to create within the FCMD a county police force with full police powers.”
— 36-8-5(1) — 1 case
Grech v. Clayton Cnty., GA, 335 F.3d 1326 (11th Cir. 2003). “” O.C.G.A. § 36-8-5. County police officers have “[t]he same power to make arrests and to execute and return criminal warrants and processes in the county of their election or appointment .”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.