(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 Black Mountain Center and the Julian F. Keith Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment Center in Buncombe 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 embraced by the named centers. These special police officers may arrest persons outside the territory of the named centers but within the confines of Buncombe County when the person arrested has committed a criminal offense within that territory, 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) These special police officers may exercise any and all of the powers enumerated in this Part upon or in pursuit from the property formerly occupied by the Black Mountain Center and now occupied by the Department of Adult Correction. These special police officers shall exercise said powers upon the property transferred to the Department of Adult Correction only by agreement of the Department of Adult Correction and the Department of Health and Human Services.

(c) 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. (1983 (Reg. Sess., 1984), c. 1116, s. 30; 1985, c. 408, ss. 3, 5; c. 589, s. 2; 1995, c. 391, s. 3; 1997-320, s. 2; 1997-443, s. 11A.118(a); 1998-202, s. 13(gg); 2011-145, s. 19.1(h); 2017-186, s. 2(rrrrr); 2019-240, s. 19(b); 2021-180, s. 19C.9(qqq).)