North Carolina § 17E-1 - Findings and policy.

§ 17E-1. Findings and policy.

The General Assembly finds and declares that the office of sheriff, the office of deputy sheriff and the other officers and employees of the sheriff of a county are unique among all of the law-enforcement offices of North Carolina. The administration of criminal justice has been declared by Article 1 of Chapter 17C of the General Statutes to be of statewide concern to the people of the State. The sheriff is the only officer of local government required by the Constitution. The sheriff, in addition to his criminal justice responsibilities, is the only officer who is also responsible for the courts of the State, and acting as their bailiff and marshall. The sheriff administers and executes criminal and civil justice and acts as the ex officio detention officer. The deputy sheriff has been held by the Supreme Court of this State to hold an office of special trust and confidence, acting in the name of and with powers coterminous with his principal, the elected sheriff. The offices of sheriff and deputy sheriff are therefore of special concern to the public health, safety, welfare and morals of the people of the State. The training and educational needs of such officers therefore require particularized and differential treatment from those of the criminal justice officers certified under Article 1 of Chapter 17C of the General Statutes. History (1983, c. 558, s. 1; 1995, c. 103, s. 1; 2021-107, s. 3(a).) Editor's Note. - "Article 1 of Chapter 17C " has been substituted for "Chapter 17C" in this section at the direction of the Revisor of Statutes. Session Laws 2021-107, s. 3(c), provides: "When recodifying pursuant to this section, the Revisor of Statutes may separate subsections of existing statutory sections into new sections and, when necessary to organize relevant law into its proper place in Chapter 17E of the General Statutes, as amended by this act, may rearrange sentences that currently appear within subsections. The Revisor may modify statutory citations throughout the General Statutes, as appropriate, and may modify any references to statutory divisions, such as "Chapter," "Subchapter," "Article," "Part," "section," and "subsection"; adjust the order of lists of multiple statutes to maintain statutory order; correct terms and conform names and titles changed by this act; and make conforming changes to catch lines and references to catch lines. The Revisor may also adjust subject and verb agreement and the placement of conjunctions. The Revisor shall consult with the North Carolina Sheriffs' Education and Training Standards Commission on this recodification." Legal Periodicals. - For a survey of 1996 developments in constitutional law, see 75 N.C.L. Rev. 2281 (1997).