Request By:
Mr. Charles K. McClure, III
Executive Director
Bernheim Forest
Highway 245
Clermont, Kentucky 40110
Opinion
Opinion By: Frederic J. Cowan, Attorney General; Gerard R. Gerhard, Assistant Attorney General
By letter of September 16, 1991, to Paul Richwalsky, of this office, you ask whether vehicles operated by individuals appointed as special local peace officers (KRS 61.360), for property owned by the I. W. Bernheim Foundation, may be equipped with flashing lights for use only within the Foundation's property, to enforce traffic regulations.
In our view, vehicles used by special local peace officers cannot lawfully be equipped with flashing lights for use in attempting to cause motorists to stop or yield the right-of-way. Discussion follows.
As explained in your letter, the I. W. Bernheim Foundation, which owns and operates a 15,000 acre forest that is open from time to time for public visitation, has recently established a "Ranger Division," consisting of individuals appointed as "special local peace officers" (KRS 61.360). Six officers currently assigned to the division patrol the 15,000 acre Bernheim Forest property, which is interlaced with a privately maintained road system. Enforcement of traffic regulations would be enhanced if vehicles used by the rangers could be equipped with flashing lights, which would be used only within the confines of Bernheim Foundation property, to stop traffic violators and for traffic control purposes.
A general ban on equipping vehicles with front flashing lights, of the nature used by public law enforcement authorities to cause motorists to stop or yield the right-of-way, is set out in KRS 189.040(8). The ban expressed in that subsection addresses all vehicles, not just those operated on publicly maintained highways, and thus presumably would apply to vehicles operated by the Foundation on its own roadways.
For a vehicle to be equipped with flashing lights pursuant to statutory authorization, for the purpose of requiring motorists to stop or yield the right-of-way (KRS 189.930), a vehicle must fall within the definition of an "emergency vehicle, " as defined in KRS 189.910, or within a direction or authorization of either KRS 189.920, or KRS 189.950. Vehicles utilized by the special local peace officers of Bernheim Forest are not among those for which flashing lights are authorized or directed by the statutory provisions cited, and thus cannot be lawfully equipped with flashing lights for use in traffic enforcement.
Of additional concern is KRS 189.930, the key statute pertaining to the use of flashing lights to cause motorists to stop or yield the right-of-way. Subsections (1) and (2) of that provision direct certain action by motorists "upon the approach of an emergency vehicle equipped with one or more flashing, rotating, or oscillating red or blue lights. . . ." Since vehicles operated by the Foundation cannot be classified as "emergency vehicles," motorists would not, from a statutory enforcement point of view, have to stop or yield for Foundation vehicles, if, despite the views expressed in this opinion, they were equipped with such lights and they were actuated.