Request By:
Robert D. McAninch
Commissioner
Floyd County Solid Waste
Commission
Courthouse Annex
P.O. Box 186
Prestonsburg, Kentucky 41653
Opinion
Opinion By: Frederic J. Cowan, Attorney General; James M. Ringo, Assistant Attorney General
This is in response to your letter in which you inquire as to the extent of a park ranger's jurisdiction and authority under KRS 148.056.
KRS 148.056(1) provides:
(1) The commissioner of parks, in his discretion, may employ and commission park rangers as the commissioner deems necessary to secure the parks and property of the department of parks and have all of the powers of peace officers and shall have on all parks property and on public highways transversing such property in all parts of the state the same powers with respect to criminal matters and enforcement of the laws relating thereto as sheriffs, constables and police officers in their respective jurisdictions, and shall possess all the immunities and matters of defense now available or hereafter made available to sheriffs, constables and police officers in any suit brought against them in consequence of acts done in the course of their employment. (Emphasis added).
Thus, the legislature has limited the jurisdiction and authority of a park ranger, as a peace officer, to all parks property in the state and public highways transversing such property. An exception to this limitation would be a hot pursuit situation where the park ranger is in pursuit of a person fleeing the park who has committed a violation of law within the powers of the park ranger to enforce.
The current version of KRS 148.056, quoted above, was the result of an amendment to that statute by the 1982 General Assembly which added the language specifically limiting the jurisdiction of the park rangers to the park and public highways transversing the park.
To the extent that prior opinions of this office, OAG 73-210 and OAG 77-566 (which preceded the 1982 amendment to KRS 148.056), differ from this opinion concerning the jurisdiction of a park ranger, they are hereby modified accordingly.