Request By:
Mr. Robert Y. Brown
Chief of Police
City of Versailles
Versailles, Kentucky 40383
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Thomas R. Emerson, Assistant Attorney General
This is in reply to your letter raising three questions pertaining to jailers and deputy jailers. Your first question asks whether the jailer and his deputies have the power to issue traffic citations.
KRS 446.010(24) states that a jailer is a peace officer. Pursuant to KRS 71.060 the deputy county jailers have all the powers possessed by the jailer and they are also peace officers. KRS 431.005(1) sets forth the peace officers' powers of arrest. KRS 431.015(1) deals with the issuance of a citation for a misdemeanor or violation and provides as follows:
"A peace officer may issue a citation instead of making an arrest for a misdemeanor or violation committed in his presence, if there are reasonable grounds to believe that the person being cited will appear to answer the charge. The citation shall provide that the defendant shall appear within a designated time."
Thus, since the county jailer and his deputies are peace officers they may issue traffic citations pursuant to and in accordance with the provisions of KRS 431.015 for misdemeanors or violations committed in their presence. Note the provisions of KRS 431.450 pertaining to the use of the uniform traffic citation.
While the county jailer and his deputies may under the proper circumstances utilize the provisions of KRS 431.015, their primary function is to attend to the county jail and the persons confined in the jail. They have no statutory obligation to patrol the streets and highways and their duties associated with the jail must not be neglected in favor of apprehending traffic violators, a function which would normally be handled by police officers.
Your second question asks whether the jailer and his deputies have the right to issue parking tickets on the city streets.
While the county jailer and his deputies may, under proper fact situations, make arrests and issue traffic citations, the issuance of a parking ticket involves neither an arrest nor a citation. Both an arrest and a citation involve an identifiable person but the individual issuing the parking ticket usually does not know the identity of the car's owner. The county jailer and his deputies have no authority to issue city parking tickets as this involves a matter over which the city has complete control.
KRS 94.360 provides in part that the city legislative body in cities of the second through the sixth class shall have and exercise exclusive jurisdiction over the public ways of the city. In City of Louisville v. Louisville Automobile Club, 290 Ky. 241, 160 S.W.2d 663 (1942), the Court said that a city is vested with all reasonable police power, including the power to regulate the parking of vehicles on the streets, which encompasses the authority to provide the means to assist in the enforcement of reasonable regulations. The Court, in Adams v. Burke, 308 Ky. 722, 215 S.W.2d 531, 534 (1948), stated in part as follows:
". . . It is of course clear that a municipality may reasonably regulate the use of its streets by any vehicles. It may designate what streets shall be used by particular classes of traffic, fix speed limits, set aside parking spaces, and pass other measures designed to protect its streets and provide for the safety of its citizens. Such regulation would constitute true 'control over the public ways' which is delegated to city legislative bodies by subsection (1), section 94.360, KRS, earlier referred to."
The city's control over its streets includes the authority to regulate the parking of vehicles on those streets and to enforce such regulations pertaining to parking. See OAG's 78-259, 76-205 and 74-300, copies enclosed. Thus, the city, through its police department or other designated agency or persons, has the authority to issue parking tickets for vehicles on its streets. The authority of the county jailer and his deputies does not extend to the issuance of parking tickets within the city.
Your last question asks whether the county jailer and his deputies have the right to install blue lights on their personal vehicles.
KRS 189.910 to 189.950 deal with emergency and public safety vehicles and the use of red, blue or yellow flashing, rotating or oscillating lights on such vehicles. Neither KRS 189.910(1), defining "emergency vehicle," nor KRS 189.910(2), defining "public safety vehicle," include within their definitions those vehicles used by jailers. KRS 189.920 sets forth those vehicles which are authorized to use red, blue or yellow flashing, rotating or oscillating lights. Subsection (2) of that statute specifically lists those vehicles authorized to use blue flashing, rotating or oscillating lights. While it mentions all state, county or municipal police vehicles and all sheriffs' vehicles used as emergency vehicles, there is no mention of jailers or jailers' vehicles. Furthermore, nothing in KRS 189.950 would authorize jailers or their deputies to use blue flashing, rotating or oscillating lights on their personal vehicles.
Only those vehicles specifically mentioned in the statutes shall be equipped with blue flashing, rotating or oscillating lights and since there is no mention of jailers and their vehicles, such vehicles cannot legally be equipped with such blue lights.