(a) The Secretary may designate one or more special police officers who shall make up a joint security force to enforce the law of North Carolina and any ordinance or regulation adopted pursuant to N.C. Gen. Stat. § 143-116.6 or N.C. Gen. Stat. § 143-116.7 or pursuant to the authority granted the Department by any other law on the territory of the Cherry Hospital and the O’Berry Neuro-Medical Treatment Center in Wayne County. After taking the oath of office for law enforcement officers as set out in N.C. Gen. Stat. § 11-11, these special police officers have the same powers as peace officers now vested in sheriffs within the territory of the Cherry Hospital. These special police officers shall also have the power prescribed by N.C. Gen. Stat. § 122C-205 outside the territory of the Cherry Hospital and the O’Berry Neuro-Medical Treatment Center but within the confines of Wayne County. These special police officers may arrest persons outside the territory of the Cherry Hospital but within the confines of Wayne County, when the person arrested has committed a criminal offense within the territory of the Cherry Hospital and the O’Berry Neuro-Medical Treatment Center, for which the officers could have arrested the person within that territory, and the arrest is made during the person’s immediate and continuous flight from that territory.

(b) Upon assignment by the Secretary, or Secretary’s designee, to any State-operated facility pursuant to N.C. Gen. Stat. § 122C-183, these special police officers may exercise the same power enumerated in this Part within the territory of the named facility and within the county in which the facility is located. (2001-125, s. 1; 2019-240, s. 19(d).)