The sheriff is the chief
executive officer and conservator of the peace of the county. In the
execution of the office of sheriff, it is the sheriff’s duty to:
(1) Arrest and commit to prison all persons who break the peace, or
attempt to break it, and all persons guilty of public offenses.
(2) Defend the county against those who, by riot or otherwise,
endanger the public peace or safety.
(3) Execute the process and orders of the courts of justice or of
judicial officers, when delivered to the sheriff for that purpose,
according to law.
(4) Execute all warrants delivered to the sheriff for that purpose
by other public officers, according to law.
(5) Attend, upon call, the Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, Oregon
Tax Court, circuit court, justice court or county court held within the
county, and to obey its lawful orders or directions. [Amended by 1985
c.339 §1](1) A person is not eligible to be a candidate for election or
appointment to the office of sheriff unless:
(a) The person is 21 years of age or older;
(b) The person has at least four years’ experience as a full-time
law enforcement officer or at least two years’ experience as a full-time
law enforcement officer with at least two years’ post-high-school
education; and
(c) The person has not been convicted of a felony or of any other
crime that would prevent the person from being certified as a police
officer under ORS 181.610 to 181.712.
(2) As used in subsection (1) of this section, “two years’
post-high-school education” means four semesters or six quarters of
classroom education in a formal course of study undertaken after
graduation from high school in any accredited college or university. The
term does not include apprenticeship or on-the-job training.
(3) If the person is not certified as a police officer by the
Department of Public Safety Standards and Training at the time of
accepting appointment or filing as a candidate, a person elected or
appointed to the office of sheriff must obtain the certification not
later than one year after taking office. A copy of the certification
shall be filed with the county clerk or the county official in charge of
elections. The county governing body shall declare the office of sheriff
vacant when the person serving as sheriff is not certified as a police
officer within one year after taking office.
(4) The Department of Public Safety Standards and Training, in
consultation with the Board on Public Safety Standards and Training,
shall establish a procedure for determining whether an individual is
eligible under subsection (1) of this section to be a candidate for
election to the office of sheriff. A copy of the department’s
determination of an individual’s eligibility to be a candidate for
election to the office of sheriff shall be filed with the county clerk or
county official in charge of elections not later than the 61st day before
the date of the election. If the department determines that the
individual is not eligible to be a candidate for election to the office
of sheriff, the county clerk or county official in charge of elections
shall not place the name of the individual on the ballot at the election.
[1971 c.299 §1; 1981 c.808 §5; 1987 c.484 §1; 1993 c.493 §87; 1997 c.853
§35] (1) Every
sheriff shall keep in the sheriff’s office a fee book or a system of
receipts which shall be a public record, and in which shall be entered
promptly all items of services performed and fees collected, with the
name of the person for whom such services were performed, and the amount
collected.
(2) The sheriff shall deposit each month with the county treasurer
all such sums collected by the sheriff during the month next preceding,
except the sums received for the care or preservation of property, and
shall take the treasurer’s duplicate receipts therefor, which receipts
shall specify the kind of service performed, for whom performed, and the
amount received for such service.
(3) The sheriff shall immediately file one of the receipts with the
county accountant and, if there is no county accountant, with the county
clerk. [Amended by 1983 c.310 §1]An officer to whom any process, order or
paper is delivered shall execute or serve it according to its command or
direction, or as required by law, and must make a written return of the
execution or service thereof. If a sheriff is directed by a court to take
personal property into custody at a specific premises, and the property
is concealed in a building or enclosure, the sheriff shall demand its
delivery. If delivery is not made, the sheriff shall use such reasonable
force as is necessary to enter into the building or enclosure and take
the property into possession. [Amended by 2003 c.304 §1] When any
process, order or paper is delivered to an officer, to be executed or
served, the officer shall deliver to the person delivering it, if
required, on payment of the fee, a written memorandum, specifying the
names of the parties in the process, order or paper, the general nature
thereof and the day on which it was received. The officer shall also,
when required by law, or upon the request of the party served, without
fee, deliver to the party a copy thereof. (1) When an
officer finds, or has reason to apprehend, that resistance will be made
to the execution or service of any process, order or paper delivered to
the officer for execution or service, and authorized by law, the officer
may command as many male inhabitants of the county of the officer as the
officer may think proper and necessary to assist the officer in
overcoming the resistance, and if necessary, in seizing, arresting and
confining the resisters and their aiders and abettors, to be punished
according to law.
(2) National guard members are exempt from any service commanded
under subsection (1) of this section while they continue to be active
members. [Amended by 1961 c.454 §209] A sheriff is
justified in the execution of process regular on its face, and appearing
to have been issued by competent authority, whatever may be the defect in
the proceedings in which it was issued. No
direction or authority by a party or the attorney of the party to a
sheriff or the officer of the sheriff, in respect to the execution of
process or the return thereof, or to any act or omission relating
thereto, can be shown to discharge or excuse the sheriff from a liability
for neglect or misconduct, unless it is contained in a writing signed by
the party to be charged or affected thereby or the attorney of the party.When a new sheriff is elected or appointed,
and has qualified, the county clerk shall give the new sheriff a
certificate of that fact, under the seal of office of the county clerk.
Whenever thereafter the new sheriff is authorized by statute to enter
upon the duties of the office, the new sheriff shall serve such
certificate upon the former sheriff, from which time the powers of the
former sheriff cease, except when otherwise specially provided.
Within one day after the service of the certificate referred to in ORS
206.080 upon the former sheriff, the former sheriff shall deliver to the
successor:
(1) The jail of the county, with its appurtenances and the property
of the county therein.
(2) The prisoners then confined in the county jail.
(3) The process or other papers in the custody of the former
sheriff, authorizing or relating to the confinement of the prisoners, or
if they have been returned, a written memorandum of them and the time and
place of their return.
(4) All process for the arrest of a party, and all papers relating
to the summoning of jurors which have not been fully executed.
(5) All executions and final process, except those which the former
sheriff has executed, or has begun to execute, by the collection of money
or a levy on property.
(6) All process or other papers for the enforcement of a
provisional remedy not fully executed. The former sheriff
shall also at the time referred to in ORS 206.090 deliver to the new
sheriff a written assignment of the property, process, papers and
prisoners delivered. The new sheriff shall thereupon acknowledge in
writing, upon the assignment, the receipt of the property, process,
papers and prisoners therein specified, furnish the former sheriff a
certified copy thereof and file the original in the county clerk’s office.(1) The former sheriff shall return all process, whether
before or after judgment, which the former sheriff has fully executed,
and the new sheriff and the successor in office shall complete the
execution of all final process which the predecessor commenced and did
not complete.
(2) In all cases where real property is sold under execution by any
sheriff, and the sheriff fails or neglects during the term of office of
the sheriff, by virtue of the expiration thereof, or otherwise, to make
or execute a proper sheriff’s deed conveying the property to the
purchaser, or if through mistake in its execution, or otherwise, any
sheriff’s deed is inoperative, or if by reason of the loss of an
unrecorded sheriff’s deed, the purchaser, the heirs or assigns or
successors in interest of the purchaser desire the execution of another
sheriff’s deed, the sheriff in office at any time after the purchaser is
entitled to a deed shall execute such conveyance. When executed to cure
or replace a defective or lost deed such conveyance shall be to the
grantee in the defective or lost deed, but shall relate back and be
deemed to take effect as of the date of the execution of the defective or
lost deed so as to inure to the benefit of the heirs and assigns, or
other successors in interest, of the grantee named therein. Such
conveyance so executed by the sheriff in office shall have the same force
and effect as if executed by the sheriff who made the sale. [Amended by
2003 c.576 §395] When
the official term of office of any sheriff ends by expiration of the
term, death, resignation, removal from office or otherwise, the money in
the custody of the sheriff by virtue of the office of the sheriff,
belonging to the county or litigants, shall be turned over immediately to
the successor in office, and duplicate itemized receipts therefor
immediately shall be filed with the county treasurer. The sheriff of each county
shall keep an office in such room or building, at the place appointed by
law for holding courts therein, as the county court may by order
designate.
Notwithstanding the provisions of ORS 241.016 to 241.990 or any other
county civil service law or regulation, the sheriff may organize the work
of the office of the sheriff so that:
(1) The various duties required of the office may be assigned to
appropriate departments and divisions to be performed by persons
experienced and qualified for such respective kinds of work.
(2) The duties of the various assistants, officers and deputies of
the sheriff are coordinated so that, when not engaged in a particular
duty specified or directed to be done and not then requiring attention,
such persons shall perform the other duties required of the office and
then required to be done.
(3) The cooperation among assistants, officers, deputies and
employees in the departments and divisions may be secured for the
purposes of avoiding duplication of time and effort. [1963 c.331 §2]MISCELLANEOUS Personal service of a paper
upon the sheriff may be made by delivering it to a person belonging to
and in the office during office hours, or if no such person is there, by
leaving it in the office, or if the office is not open, by delivering it
to the county clerk or the deputy of the county clerk, at the county
clerk’s office. [Formerly 206.130](1) A sheriff is entitled to receive from
the county the actual and necessary expenses of the sheriff incurred in
transporting and conveying convicts and parole violators to a Department
of Corrections institution and mentally ill persons to a state mental
hospital when conveyed by the sheriff in pursuance of the adjudication of
an authorized tribunal of the state, to be audited and allowed as other
claims against the county.
(2) All counties are entitled to receive reimbursement from the
state in the amounts specified in subsection (3) of this section for the
actual and necessary expenses incurred by the sheriff under subsection
(1) of this section.
(3) Reimbursement by the state under subsection (2) of this section
shall be as follows:
(a) Full reimbursement for transporting and conveying mentally ill
persons to a state mental hospital.
(b) Full reimbursement for returning a parole violator to the state
penitentiary.
(c) Seventy-five percent reimbursement for transporting and
conveying a convict to a Department of Corrections institution. [Formerly
204.421; 1987 c.320 §146] When a
sheriff is legally required to perform a service on behalf of the state,
which is not chargeable to the county of the sheriff or some other
person, the account of the sheriff therefor must be audited by the
Secretary of State, and paid out of the State Treasury. [Formerly 206.140] A
sheriff is entitled to claim from the plaintiff or moving party in any
account, action or proceeding such reasonable sums of money as the
sheriff may have been compelled to pay or incur in the care of property
in the custody of the sheriff, under attachment, execution or proceedings
for the claim and delivery of personal property. [Formerly 204.425] The sheriff is entitled to
demand and receive to the sheriff’s own use any reward offered in
pursuance of law for the apprehension of any person charged with or
suspected of crime, when the sheriff has earned the same by a compliance
with such offer. [Formerly 206.150] (1) A
sheriff shall have authority to enter into contracts, jointly with the
governing body of the county, on behalf of the county, as provided in ORS
190.010.
(2) During the existence of the contract, the sheriff and the
deputies of the sheriff shall exercise such authority as may be vested in
them by terms of the contract, including full power and authority to
arrest for violations of all duly enacted ordinances of the contracting
city. [1967 c.236 §1]UNIFORMS No person other
than a county sheriff, person designated by a county sheriff, or
regularly salaried sheriff’s deputy shall wear, use, copy or imitate in
any manner the uniform of that county sheriff. [1979 c.492 §2]PENALTIESViolation of ORS 206.355 is a Class A
misdemeanor. [1979 c.492 §3]
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