Judges: W.A. DREW EDMONDSON, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF OKLAHOMA
Filed Date: 7/31/1995
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 7/6/2016
Dear Director Dirck,
¶ 0 This office has received your request for an Opinion addressing the following questions:
1. Does a duly created campus police department have theauthority to appoint and commission reserve officers?
2. If campus police departments have the authority to appointand commission reserve officers, must the reserve officers becertified and trained by the Council on Law Enforcement Educationand Training (C.L.E.E.T.)?
For purposes of this section, a police or peace officer is defined as a full-time duly appointed or elected officer who is paid for working more than twenty-five (25) hours per week and whose duties are to preserve the public peace, protect life and property, prevent crime, serve warrants, and enforce laws and ordinances of this state, or any political subdivision thereof. . . .
¶ 2 Title 11 O.S. 1991, § 34-101[
In addition to regular full-time municipal police officers, reserve municipal police officers may also be appointed by the Chief of Police. Reserve municipal police officers shall have the powers, duties and functions as set forth in law or ordinance for regular full-time municipal officers.
¶ 3 Section 34-101(B) further provides that reserve police officers serve on a part-time basis consisting of not more than twenty-five (25) hours per week.
¶ 4 As the statute above indicates, the law clearly authorizes municipal police departments to appoint reserve officers. In order to determine whether campus police departments may, like municipal police departments, appoint reserve officers, the Campus Security Act, found at 74 O.S. 1991, §§ 360.15[
¶ 5 The Campus Security Act enables campus police departments to exercise the same authority as municipal police departments. Title 74 O.S. 1991, § 360.17[
As limited by law, the provisions of this section, and the governing board, the campus police department shall have the same authority as a municipal police department.
¶ 6 This authority includes the ability to appoint and commission reserve officers as set forth in 11 O.S. 1991, §34-101[
¶ 8 As stated above, campus police departments have the same authority as municipal police departments to appoint and commission reserve officers. Title 11 O.S. 1991, § 34-101[
[H]as satisfactorily completed a basic police course of not less than one hundred twenty (120) hours of accredited instruction for reserve police officers and reserve deputies and not less than three hundred (300) hours for full-time salaried police or peace officers from the Council or curriculum or course of study approved by the Council.
(Emphasis added.)
¶ 9 These provisions clearly state that no person may be certified as a police officer or reserve officer until, among other things, C.L.E.E.T. has determined that he or she has completed a police course either from C.L.E.E.T. or approved by C.L.E.E.T. As such, reserve campus officers must be certified by C.L.E.E.T., and they must either be trained by C.L.E.E.T. or complete C.L.E.E.T.-approved training.
¶ 10 It is therefore the official Opinion of the AttorneyGeneral that:
1. Because there are no limitations imposed by law, a dulycreated campus police department has the authority, pursuant to74 O.S. 1991, § 360.17(C) and 11 O.S. 1991, § 34-101(B),to appoint and commission reserve officers.2
2. Reserve campus officers must be certified by the Council onLaw Enforcement Education and Training and must either be trainedby the Council or complete Council-approved training pursuant to70 O.S. 1991, § 3311[
W.A. DREW EDMONDSON ATTORNEY GENERAL OF OKLAHOMA
JUDY A. TERRY ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL