Opinion ID: 2495239
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Detention Officers

Text: Walker alleges against the City claims of negligence, and the tort of outrage based on the acts of the detention officers, specifically based on the detention officers' failure to provide Walker with medical care. Walker argues that the detention officers are not peace officers within the meaning of § 6-5-338(a), Ala.Code 1975, because, she argues, they were not police officers and did not have the powers listed in § 6-5-338(a). [6] To support this argument, Walker relies on Ex parte Shelley, 53 So.3d 887 (Ala.2009), and Howard v. City of Atmore, 887 So.2d 201 (Ala. 2003). In Shelley, this Court determined that a sheriff's jailer was not entitled to State immunity as an alter ego of a constitutional officer under § 14 of the Alabama Constitution of 1901. This Court did not address whether a municipal detention officer may be entitled to State-agent immunity under Cranman. Therefore, this Court's decision in Shelley has no bearing on the question Walker presents in this case. In Howard, this Court determined that a city police officer who was working as a jailer/dispatcher was performing law-enforcement duties. In a footnote, this Court expressly declined to answer the question whether the immunity afforded by § 6-5-338(a) applies to a city-jail guard who is not a regular municipal police officer. 887 So.2d at 204 n. 1. We now hold that a municipal jailer who lacks the authority of a police officer cannot claim immunity under concepts applicable to the immunity of a State agent under § 6-5-338(a), which requires that the individual be empowered by the laws of this state to execute warrants, to arrest and to take into custody persons who violate, or who are lawfully charged by warrant, indictment, or other lawful process, with violations of, the criminal laws of this state. The detention officers in this proceeding, unlike the jailer in Howard, did not, according to the evidence before us, have such authority. We conclude that the detention officers at the City's jail are not entitled to immunity as peace officers under § 6-5-338(a) or as State agents under Cranman.