May a Sheriff or a Deputy Enforce a Municipal Ordinance?

Municipal police have many duties, sometimes including enforcing municipal ordinances. Municipalities without their own police departments typically rely on the county sheriff to provide law enforcement services. The sheriff certainly has territorial jurisdiction to enforce state laws within city limits. But may the sheriff and his or her deputies also enforce municipal ordinances? Putting the question more precisely. G.S. 160A-175 addresses the enforcement of municipal ordinances. It gives municipalities several options for enforcement. Cities may make a violation a misdemeanor or an infraction; may impose civil penalties for a violation; and may address violations through a court order or an injunction. If enforcement is through a court order or an injunction, it is clear that a sheriff or a deputy sheriff cannot enforce the ordinance. For that matter, neither may a municipal police officer. Because legal action is required, enforcement will necessarily fall to an attorney acting on the city’s behalf. Expressed more precisely, then, the question this post considers is whether a sheriff or a deputy may enforce a municipal ordinance when the ordinance is enforceable as a misdemeanor, as an infraction, or through civil penalties. When the ordinance is enforceable as a misdemeanor. It used to be that most violations of municipal ordinances were misdemeanors. See G.S. 14-4(a) (providing that, with certain exceptions, “if any person shall violate an ordinance of a county, city, town, or metropolitan sewerage district . . . he shall be guilty of a Class 3 misdemeanor”). There are some relatively new limitations, discussed here, [...]