(1) Any police officer, law enforcement officer of the Department of Public Safety or authorized enforcement officer of the Mississippi Department of Transportation may require the driver of any vehicle that is required by law or by any rule or regulation of the Mississippi Department of Transportation or the State Tax Commission to stop at inspection stations and submit to an inspection to stop and submit to a weighing of the vehicle, either by means of portable or stationary scales, and may require that such vehicle be driven to the nearest scales for weighing. To aid the enforcement of this chapter, the transportation department may assign up to forty (40) portable scale teams as it deems necessary for efficient enforcement.

(2) Whenever such an officer, upon weighing a vehicle and load as above provided, determines that the weight is unlawful, such officer shall assess a penalty against the owner or operator in accordance with Section 27-19-89, and may require the driver to drive the vehicle to a suitable place and remain standing until such portion of the load is removed as may be necessary to reduce the gross weight of such vehicle to such limit as permitted under this chapter. All material so unloaded shall be cared for by the owner or operator of such vehicle at the risk of such owner or operator.

(3) Any police officer, law enforcement officer of the Department of Public Safety, or authorized enforcement officer of the transportation department who stops a vehicle pursuant to subsection (1) of this section shall have the authority to inspect such vehicle to determine whether or not such vehicle is engaged in the illegal transportation of any contraband.

(4) Any driver of a vehicle who fails or refuses to stop and submit the vehicle and load to a weighing, or who fails or refuses, when directed by such an officer upon weighing of the vehicle, to stop the vehicle and otherwise comply with the provisions of this section, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of not more than One Thousand Dollars ($1,000.00), or by confinement in the county jail for not more than thirty (30) days, or by both such fine and jail sentence and, if operating at a gross weight in excess of the legal limit, such additional penalty or assessment as provided by law.

(5) It is the intent of the Legislature that the Department of Public Safety and all police officers shall cooperate with the transportation department in the enforcement of the highway weight laws of this state.