Have you ever been pulled over by a campus police officer when you weren't on a school campus? One viewer emailed us to ask if this was legal.
Chelsea Beimfohr set out to Verify what powers campus police officers have to write tickets and make arrests.
Every day, Georgia College police officers cruise the streets of the campus, patrolling the area to keep their students and faculty safe.
But what authority do they have to patrol areas outside of the GCSU campus?
"The law says that we have authority on campus and within 500 yards of campus to enforce all laws, including traffic laws," says Georgia College Chief of Police, Don Challis.
Challis says Georgia state code 20-3-72 allows campus police officers to make arrests and write tickets anywhere within their jurisdiction and any public or private property within 500 yards of the campus.
"This pertains to all police officers in the University System of Georgia," Challis says.
Challis says many of the stops his officers make begin on campus but end off campus for a number of reasons.
"Better lighting, the person doesn't want to stop, we don't have their attention, we decide to wait until we clear traffic or an intersection, and it's a very common thing for an infraction to occur within jurisdiction and for the stop to actually take place outside jurisdiction," says Challis.
And what if his officers see something illegal more than 500 yards away from campus?
Challis says, "If we were outside our jurisdiction and see something that would demonstrate a compelling public safety interest like somebody all over the road, we would make the stop to make the community safe and then turn it over to local jurisdiction,"
We verified that campus police do have the authority to pull you over off campus.