July 14, 2025
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?
June 3, 2025
North Carolina General Statute 50B-3.1 provides that, under certain circumstances, a person who is subject to a DVPO must be ordered to surrender to the sheriff “all firearms, machine guns, ammunition, permits to purchase firearms, and permits to carry concealed firearms that are in the care, custody, possession, ownership, or control of the defendant.” That statute also permits the person to seek return of the surrendered items following the expiration of the protective order and final disposition of any related criminal charges. If the person is ineligible for the return of the items or fails to request return, then a court may order disposal of the items in one of several ways set out in the statute. This post details the procedure for surrender, return, and disposal of firearms and related items in DVPO cases.
July 17, 2014
Most people can get behind the idea that inmates should, if able, do some sort of work during their incarceration. By statute, “[i]t is declared to be the public policy […]
August 1, 2011
One of the goals of the Justice Reinvestment Act is to have more misdemeanants serve their time in the county jail instead of the Department of Correction. I’ll write soon […]