Request By:
Hon. Michael L. Stephens, Adair County Judge Executive
Opinion
Opinion By: ANDY BESHEAR, ATTORNEY GENERAL; Sam Flynn, Assistant Attorney General
Statutes construed : KRS 189.920, KRS 189.950, KRS 241.110, KRS 446.010
OAGs cited : OAG 17-017
Opinion of the Attorney General
Michael Lee Stephens, County Judge Executive for Adair County, has requested an opinion of this office as to whether county alcoholic beverage control ("ABC") administrators and investigators may equip their vehicles with blue lights for the purposes of ABC enforcement. In requesting the opinion of this office, Judge Executive Stephens stated that it was his opinion that KRS 241.110(4) provides the county alcohol beverage control administrator and investigators the authority to equip their vehicles with blue lights because the administrator and investigators "...have full police powers."
For the reasons set forth below, we do not believe county ABC investigators may equip their vehicles with flashing, rotating, or oscillating blue lights.
The language of KRS 241.110 provides county governments with the authority to regulate the traffic of alcoholic beverages in counties where such traffic is not forbidden. See KRS 241.110(1). Where a fiscal court has declared such regulation necessary, the county judge/executive is required to appoint a county alcoholic beverage control administrator for the county. Id. In addition, the judge/executive may appoint "any investigators and clerks deemed necessary for the proper conduct of the county alcoholic beverage control administrator's office...". See KRS 241.110(2). The language of KRS 241.110(4) provides the following:
The county alcoholic beverage control administrator, appointed by the county judge/executive, and the administrator's investigators, shall have full police powers of peace officers , and their jurisdiction shall be over the unincorporated areas of the county and within the corporate limits of any city in the county not having its own administrator. They may inspect any premises where alcoholic beverages are manufactured, sold, stored, or otherwise trafficked in, without first obtaining a search warrant. (Emphasis added).
It is immediately clear that the express language of KRS 241.110(4) does not provide county alcohol beverage administrators or investigators the express authority to equip their vehicles with blue lights. Instead, it provides that alcohol beverage administrators and investigators have "full police powers of peace officers. " As KRS Chapter 241 does not provide a definition for "peace officer, " the definition of "peace officer" for the purposes of KRS Chapter 241 is found at KRS 446.010(31). The language of KRS 446.010(31) provides the following:
"Peace Officer" includes sheriffs, constables, coroners, jailers, metropolitan and urban-county government correctional officers, marshals, policemen, and other persons with similar authority to make arrests [.] (Emphasis added). 1
Our next inquiry must be whether a person with "full police powers of peace officers, " as described under KRS 241.110(4) and KRS 446.010(31), has the authority to equip his or her vehicle with blue lights. We find that these statutes do not provide such authority.
The language of KRS 189.910 to 189.950 control whether a vehicle falls within the class of vehicles required to or permitted to be equipped with flashing, rotating, or oscillating blue lights. KRS 189.950(2) expressly provides that all those vehicles not required or permitted to be equipped with blue lights are prohibited from being equipped as such.
First, we do not find KRS 189.920 per se requires persons with "full police powers of peace officers" to equip his or her vehicle with flashing, rotating, or oscillating blue lights. KRS 189.920(2) requires the following:
(2) All state, county, or municipal police vehicles and all sheriffs' vehicles used as emergency vehicles shall be equipped with one (1) or more flashing, rotating, or oscillating blue lights, visible under normal atmospheric conditions from a distance of five hundred (500) feet to the front of the vehicle, and a siren, whistle, or belt capable of emitting a sound audible under normal conditions from a distance of not less than five hundred (500) feet. This equipment shall be in addition to any other equipment required by the motor vehicle laws.
Construing this statute, this office recently opined that although constables are "peace officers" as defined under KRS 446.010, they were not subject to the statutory requirement to equip their vehicles with blue lights under KRS 189.920(2). See OAG 17-017 at 5. Like constables, county ABC investigators' vehicles are not state, county, or municipal police vehicles or sheriff's vehicles under KRS 189.920(2). Id. (reasoning "KRS Chapter 70 expressly categorizes county police, sheriffs, and constables as separate and distinct entities, with differing duties.") Therefore, we find that county ABC investigator vehicles are not required to be equipped with flashing, rotating, or oscillating blue lights under KRS 189.920(2).
Second, we further find that county ABC investigators are not permitted to equip their vehicles with flashing, rotating, or oscillating blue lights. KRS 189.950(2) specifically provides:
No motor vehicle, except those designated under KRS 189.910 to 189.950 as emergency vehicles, shall be equipped with, nor shall any person use upon a vehicle any red or blue flashing, revolving, or oscillating light or place a red light on the front thereof. This subsection shall not apply to the use of red flashing lights on school buses or to stop lights or turn signals at the rear of any motor vehicle.
As noted above, county ABC investigator vehicles are not required to be equipped with blue lights. Nor are they otherwise designated as emergency vehicles permitted to be equipped with blue lights under KRS 189.910 to 189.950. Therefore, KRS 189.950(2) expressly prohibits county ABC investigators from equipping their vehicles with flashing, rotating, or oscillating blue lights.
In sum, we conclude that county ABC investigators' status as "peace officers" does not per se provide them with the authority to equip their vehicles with flashing, rotating, or oscillating blue lights. To the contrary, we find they are expressly prohibited from doing so under KRS 189.950(2).
Footnotes
Footnotes
1 KRS 446.010(31) has provided the definition of "peace officer" since July 12, 2012. See 2012 H.B. 341. Prior to July 12, 2012, the same definition applied but was instead provided by KRS 446.010(25). Id.