Virginia Code 46.2-102: Enforcement by law-enforcement officers; officers to be uniformed; officers to be paid fixed salaries
State police officers and law-enforcement officers of every county, city, town, or other political subdivision of the Commonwealth shall enforce the provisions of this title punishable as felonies, misdemeanors, or traffic infractions. Additionally, notwithstanding § 52-22, state police officers may enforce local ordinances, adopted under subsection G of § 46.2-752, requiring the obtaining and displaying of local motor vehicle licenses. Fifty percent of the revenue collected from such enforcement shall be remitted by the locality to the Department of State Police and disposed of by the Department to cover its costs of operation. Every law-enforcement officer shall be uniformed at the time of the enforcement or shall display his badge or other sign of authority. All officers making arrests incident to the enforcement of this title shall be paid fixed salaries for their services and shall have no interest in, nor be permitted by law to accept the benefit of, any fine or fee resulting from the arrest or conviction of an offender against any provision of this title.
Terms Used In Virginia Code 46.2-102
- Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
- 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
- Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
- Locality: means a county, city, or town as the context may require. See Virginia Code 1-221
- Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
- 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
- Town: means any existing town or an incorporated community within one or more counties which became a town before noon, July 1, 1971, as provided by law or which has within defined boundaries a population of 1,000 or more and which has become a town as provided by law. See Virginia Code 1-254
- Vehicle: means every device in, on or by which any person or property is or may be transported or drawn on a highway, except personal delivery devices and devices moved by human power or used exclusively on stationary rails or tracks. See Virginia Code 46.2-100
With the consent of the landowner, any such officer or other uniformed employee of the local law-enforcement agency may patrol the landowner’s property to enforce state, county, city, or town motor vehicle registration and licensing requirements.
Any law-enforcement officer may patrol the streets and roads within subdivisions of real property or within a condominium pursuant to the Virginia Condominium Act (§ 55.1-1900 et seq.) or land submitted to a horizontal property regime pursuant to the Horizontal Property Act (§ 55.1-2000 et seq.), which streets and roads are maintained by the owners of the lots or parcels of land within the subdivision or the owners of condominium units within any horizontal property regime or any association of owners, on the request or with the consent of the owners or association of owners, to enforce the provisions of this title punishable as felonies, misdemeanors, or traffic infractions.
Code 1950, § 46-14; 1958, c. 541, § 46.1-6; 1972, c. 700; 1975, c. 516; 1980, c. 523; 1989, c. 727; 1995, c. 132.