Recently passed state legislation has limited the Jacksonville Police Department’s authority to make arrests in part of the city, leading to a temporary workaround with the Onslow County Sheriff’s Office.
A provision in House Bill 116, which became law Aug. 6, limits Jacksonville police officers’ authority to arrest people in a small geographic area of the city, Jacksonville Police interim chief Ashley Weaver said Monday.
The Jacksonville Police Department and Onslow County Sheriff’s Office have procedures in place to cover arresting authority until the N.C. General Assembly can correct the issue, Weaver said.
The city became aware of the jurisdictional issue shortly after the bill passed, Weaver said. City officials, the city attorney, Jacksonville Police Department, the Onslow County Sheriff’s Office and the District Attorney’s Office then developed a plan for the sheriff’s office to assist JPD with arrests when necessary.
As a result, a written mutual aid agreement between JPD and the Onslow County Sheriff’s Office deputizes Jacksonville police officers to act with the same powers available to a sheriff’s deputy, Weaver said.
Weaver said the bill’s provision does not affect whether a crime occurred, whether probable cause exists or whether evidence supports a criminal charge.
On Sept. 8, Councilwoman Cindy Edwards and Councilman Michael Yaniero held a media briefing in front of the former Onslow County Courthouse in Jacksonville. They said they were speaking as private citizens and not on behalf of the city or Jacksonville City Council.
At that event, Edwards said HB 116 is also the legislation that removed Jacksonville’s extraterritorial jurisdiction, or ETJ, and annexed portions of Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune and Marine Corps Air Station New River into the city.
The legislation restricts JPD’s authority to areas north of N.C. 24. The affected area includes part of downtown Jacksonville, including Jacksonville City Hall, and areas that are within the city limits but located south of N.C. 24, Edwards said.
“If it’s a strict legal interpretation, anything south of highway 24. Highway 24 has two pieces. There’s the bypass that pretty much goes south of the city, and then there’s highway 24 proper that bisects the bottom of the city off,” Edwards said.
Yaniero said the Jacksonville Police Department is within the affected area.
“What this bill did is, a section of the city, it removed that ability for them to be a police officer,” Yaniero said.
Edwards and Yaniero described the changes as an unintended consequence of the bill’s language.
“What happened with this bill is the way it was written. A lot of the lawyers that have looked at it have said, you know, this is an impact with the police department,” Yaniero said.
Weaver said city leaders have been informed that the N.C. General Assembly plans to correct the language when the legislature returns in November.