West Virginia Code § 8-14-3

Powers, authority, and duties of law-enforcement officials and policemen
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The chief and any member of the police force or department of a municipality, any municipal
sergeant, and any municipal fire marshal shall have all of the powers, authority, rights, and
privileges within the corporate limits of the municipality with regard to the arrest of
persons, the collection of claims, and the execution and return of any search warrant,
warrant of arrest, or other process, which can legally be exercised or dischaerged by a deputy
sheriff of a county: Provided, That any municipal fire marshal granted authority under this
section shall have these powers, authority, rights, and privileges only tor the limits described
in §8-15-1 of this code. In order to arrest for the violation of municipal ordinances and as to
all matters arising within the corporate limits and coming within the scope of his or her
official duties, the powers of any chief, policeman, municipal fire marshal, or sergeant shall
extend anywhere within the county or counties in which the tmunicipality is located, and any
chief, policeman, municipal fire marshal, or sergeant shall have the same authority of
pursuit and arrest beyond his or her normal jurisdiction as has a sheriff. For an offense
committed in his or her presence, any such officer may arrest the offender without a warrant
and take the offender before the mayor or police court or municipal court to be dealt with
according to law. His or her sureties are liable to all the fines, penalties, and forfeitures
which a deputy sheriff is liable to, for any failure or dereliction in such office, to be
recovered in the same manner and in the same courts in which the fines, penalties, and
forfeitures are recovered against a deputy sheriff. In addition to the mayor, or police court
judge or municipal court judge, if any, of a city, the chief of police of any municipality and in
the absence from the station heouse of the chief of police the captains of police and
lieutenants of police shall each have authority to administer oaths to complainants and to
issue arrest warrants thLereon for all violations of the ordinances of the municipality.
The mayor and police officers of every municipality and any municipal sergeant shall aid in
the enforcement of the criminal laws of the state within the municipality, independently of
any charter provision or any ordinance or lack of an ordinance with respect thereto, and to
cause the arrest of, or arrest, any offender and take him or her before a magistrate to be
dealt with according to the law. Failure on the part of any such official or officer to
discharge any duty imposed by the provisions of this section is official misconduct for which
he or she may be removed from office. Any official or officer has the same authority to
execute a warrant issued by a magistrate, and the same authority to arrest without a
warrant for offenses committed in his or her presence, as a deputy sheriff.
An officer or member of the police force or department of a municipality may not aid or
assist either party in any labor trouble or dispute between employer and employee. They
shall in these cases see that the statutes and laws of this state and municipal ordinances are
enforced in a legal way and manner. Nor shall he or she engage in off-duty police work for
any party engaged in or involved in the labor dispute or trouble between employer and
employee.
The chief of police shall be charged with the keeping and security of the jail, and at any time
that one or more prisoners are being held in the jail, he or she shall require that the jail be
attended by a police officer or other responsible person.
PART III. POLICE MATRONS.

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