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The USCG AUXILIARY are the people who do the "friendly safety inspections", they are civilians and posses no authority.

The USCG are military AND federal law enforcement officers. They can search any boat for any reason at any time that is in US navigable waters.

My brother is active duty USCG and a boatswains mate, he's done hundreds of small boat boardings. His favorite story is getting to arrest (by force) an off duty Mass state trooper for BUI. Guy was a belligerent &^%*^ and was convinced the USCG had no authority over him, he learned the hard way. The trooper had gotten drunk with his family on his boat and got lost, and used foul language for hours over CH16 till the Coast Guard "found" him.