Virginia Code 28.2-106: Virginia Marine Police; law-enforcement responsibilities; qualifications; oath.
A. The law-enforcement division of the Commission shall be designated as the Virginia Marine Police. It shall exercise such powers and duties as the General Assembly may confer upon it by law and as provided in regulations adopted pursuant to law, including but not limited to:
Terms Used In Virginia Code 28.2-106
- City: means an independent incorporated community which became a city as provided by law before noon on July 1, 1971, or which has within defined boundaries a population of 5,000 or more and which has become a city as provided by law. See Virginia Code 1-208
- Commission: means the Marine Resources Commission. See Virginia Code 28.2-100
- Habitat: means those state-owned bottomlands, tidal wetlands and coastal primary sand dunes which are subject to regulation under Subtitle III of this title. See Virginia Code 28.2-100
- Officer: means a member of the Virginia Marine Police. See Virginia Code 28.2-100
- State: when applied to a part of the United States, includes any of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands. See Virginia Code 1-245
- Territorial sea: means the waters within the belt, three nautical miles wide, that is adjacent to Virginia's coast and seaward of the mean low-water mark. See Virginia Code 28.2-100
1. Patrolling the tidal waters and shoreline of the Chesapeake Bay, its tidal tributaries, and territorial sea;
2. Enforcing marine fishery and habitat conservation laws and regulations;
3. Enforcing health laws pertaining to the harvesting of seafood from condemned areas;
4. Enforcing or assisting other agencies in enforcing laws pertaining to the removal of obstructions and abandoned vessels from the water, to boating operation and navigation, and to larceny on the water;
5. Providing for water-borne safety;
6. Conducting search and rescue activities; and
7. Protecting from terrorist attack federal and state water-related installations and other water-related locations within the tidal waters of the Commonwealth as may be designated by federal or state officials as important to national security.
B. Officers of the Virginia Marine Police shall have the same powers as (i) sheriffs and other law-enforcement officers to enforce all of the criminal laws of the Commonwealth, and (ii) regular conservation police officers appointed pursuant to Chapter 2 of Title 29.1.
C. A person shall be (i) at least twenty-one years old and (ii) a high school graduate or equivalent to qualify for appointment as an officer.
D. Each officer shall qualify before the clerk of the circuit court of the county or city in which he resides, or in which his district may be, by taking the oaths prescribed by law.
Code 1950, § 28-36; 1962, c. 406, §§ 28.1-41, 28.1-42; 1964, c. 115; 1972, c. 824; 1973, c. 19; 1990, c. 521, § 28.1-45.1; 1991, c. 338, § 28.1-45.2; 1992, c. 836; 2001, c. 232; 2002, c. 789.