Who’s patrolling I-77 toll lanes? Maybe an off-duty trooper looking for HOV cheaters.

Moonlighting state troopers are being paid to help a private company enforce toll violations on Interstate 77 north of Charlotte, according to officials and state documents.

Troopers enforce state laws, such as speeding, on I-77 as they do elsewhere. But under an agreement signed last May, the state transportation department and its N.C. Turnpike Authority will pay the State Highway Patrol up to $618,000 a year for “enhanced services.”

The money pays off-duty troopers to catch drivers who try to avoid tolls by claiming they have two or more passengers — “high occupancy” vehicles ride for free. The troopers also look for vehicles that aren’t supposed to use the toll lanes, such as freight trucks, and drivers who illegally enter and exit the toll lanes.

I-77 Mobility Partners, the private entity that operates the lanes and pockets toll revenue, agreed in a 2014 contract to reimburse the state for those expenses.

Mobility Partners announced last month that it would install “occupation detection” cameras to find toll-lane cheats, warning they “could face a fine by law enforcement who patrol the lanes.” The N.C. Turnpike Authority, which oversees toll roads, says violators may face $100 fines and have two points added to their driving records.

The arrangement with off-duty troopers appears to be unique in North Carolina because it involves a private operator, and it’s already drawn questions.

The Turnpike Authority says it has similar agreements with the State Highway Patrol for the state’s other toll roads, the Monroe Expressway in Union County and the Triangle Expressway near Raleigh. The authority, which operates and collects toll revenues from those roadways, pays for the patrols.

Former Mecklenburg County commissioner Jim Puckett, who opposed widening I-77 with toll lanes, calls the use of state employees to enforce toll violations on behalf of a private operator “patently wrong.” He likens it to tasking police officers with seeing that customers don’t sneak food from restaurant buffets.

Puckett, who’s running for the northern Mecklenburg seat he lost in 2018, has questioned state officials about the arrangement. He’s asked who would be liable if a trooper is hurt or killed while enforcing toll violations.

“The ability legally for the company to hire patrol officers for traffic management during construction makes perfectly good sense,” Puckett said. But enforcing toll violations, he added, “doesn’t seem to be a safety issue.” He contends the troopers are being employed for work “outside the purview of what taxpayers pay them to do.”

Who runs other NC toll roads?

The Monroe Expressway and the Triangle Expressway are owned and operated by the state. So will the toll lanes planned for I-485 in southern Mecklenburg and U.S. 74 in Charlotte.

The state also owns the 26 miles of I-77 toll lanes that opened last June and November. But unlike the other toll roads, I-77 Mobility Partners built and operates the lanes.

In a 923-page agreement signed in 2014, Mobility Partners gives the N.C. Department of Public Safety, which oversees the State Highway Patrol, authority to enforce state and local laws on its lanes as they would other public roadways.

In addition, the agreement says, Mobility Partners may ask DOT to engage the public safety department to provide “enhanced services” including HOT enforcement, referring to high occupancy tolls. DOT would be reimbursed by Mobility Partners.

“Because the express lanes provide additional services for drivers on the 26-mile corridor, NCDOT at the request of I-77 Mobility Partners has contracted Highway Patrol to hire off-duty officers to supplement the regular enforcement that SHP provides to every state road,” Mobility Partners spokeswoman Jean Leier said by email.

“Those additional services are focused on safety and regulations specific to the express lanes, like entering the express lanes by crossing the double white line (lane diving), usage by large trucks that is not allowed and HOV3+ enforcement. In addition they assist in the quick clearance of incidents both in the general purpose and express lanes.”

The transportation department bills Mobility Partners monthly for the extra services, Leier said. The state keeps revenue from traffic violations. Mobility Partners keeps toll revenue and pays the Turnpike Authority to manage customer accounts.

Warning tickets for toll violations

State law allows the Turnpike Authority to designate high-occupancy toll lanes and specify the cost for drivers who don’t meet occupancy requirements.

Turnpike Authority executive director James Eden, in response to Puckett’s questions, said the State Highway Patrol “is not involved with or responsible for any toll collection on the I-77 express lanes.”

“Mobility Partners is responsible for all costs associated with off-duty law enforcement enhanced patrol on the I-77 express lanes,” Eden wrote.

State Highway Patrol troopers are for now writing only warning tickets for toll violations, said Sgt. Michael Baker, a patrol spokesman. “We are however in discussions with NCDOT regarding further enforcement practices regarding HOV enforcement,” he said by email.

“This is something new for us, too, and somewhat novel,” Baker added in an interview.