By Amanda Estes

Staff Writer

    Following the passage of a state law in Feb. 1995
allowing police officers additional authority if approved by municipal
officials, South Portland Police Chief Edward Googins appeared before
the city council and requested his officers be granted statewide arrest
authority. Googins’ original request made more than a decade ago was
denied by the council, which feared allowing officers to make arrests
outside of their jurisdiction would result in lawsuits.

    At Monday’s council workshop, Googins, joined by Lt.
Frank Clark, repeated his request and argued he had 12 years of
experience, from other communities that have since implemented the law,
to draw upon.

    Currently, police departments in Portland,
Westbrook, Freeport and Brunswick have statewide authority, said Clark.


    Googins said when he first made the request the law
was brand new and answers to the council’s questions were not readily
available. Since then he said Maine Municipal Association (MMA), the
city’s liability insurance provider, has said the additional authority
will have no effect on liability insurance and to date there have been
no claims resulting from statewide arrest authority. If a claim were to
come forward, Googins said the department would be insured as if the
incident had taken place within the city.

    At this point, Googins said the additional authority is “not a luxury, (but) a necessity.”

    Without statewide authority, police officers can
arrest a person who travels across municipal lines if in “fresh
pursuit” of that person. If adopted, the 1995 law would allow police
officers to arrest anyone who commits a crime in the presence of an
on-duty officer regardless of their location. It would also grant
officers the authority to arrest a person outside of the city if he or
she committed a crime in South Portland and the arrest is part of an
ongoing investigation and the local police department is notified of
the officers’ presence in advance of the arrest.

    Clark said officers always notify the South Portland
shift commander and the municipal department that they will be going
out of their location.

    Currently, South Portland Police Officers can choose
to be deputized by the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office. The
deputizations grant officers authority for enforcement actions in all
of Cumberland County for a period of three years. Besides providing the
department with more paperwork, Googins said the deputizations can also
be a hindrance to on-duty officers.

Googins told the council about two real life incidents that were
complicated by the deputizations. In one incident he said an officer
who lives out of town was summoned by a neighbor to respond to a
domestic violence situation. Believing his deputization provided him
additional authority, the officer made an arrest before the town’s
police department arrived. After the arrest was made, the officer
discovered that his deputization had expired.

    In a recent situation at the Maine Mall, Googins
said Scarborough police officers became involved in the attempt to
locate the suspect’s vehicle. Scarborough police located the vehicle
and South Portland police officers made the arrest. The arresting
officers did not realize that they had crossed county lines and the
suspect was apprehended in York County.

    “Quite frankly, we’ve got enough to do without
worrying about where we are,” Googins said. “The bad guys that we deal
with don’t have to worry about jurisdiction.”

    The council expressed support for adopting the law
and gave Googins the go ahead to draft the appropriate policies. The
council will then take up the order to authorize the additional powers
at a regular council meeting.

    Councilors Linda Boudreau and Ralph Baxter were both
on the council when Googins made his first request. Boudreau said the
city is “ready for this” and Baxter supported moving forward, but said
he would stop short of calling it a necessity for the department.

Jim Soule questioned whether granting the authority caused problems
between municipal departments as he said police departments tend to be
parochial in nature.

    “Agencies do get territorial,” Googins said. The
reason for that, he said, is to ensure the safety of their people. He
said animosity is created when departments fail to communicate.

    Googins said the South Portland police department
will be entering into a memorandum of understanding with several other
agencies to tackle a significant law enforcement issue in the state. He
said the initiative will be revealed on July 9 and the additional
authority would reduce liability and aid in the implementation of that
program.



Request to Destroy Weapons

    Police Chief Edward Googins also presented a request
for the council’s authority to send 15 weapons to the State Police
Crime Lab to be destroyed at no cost to the city.

    According to a memo from Googins to the council, the
department currently has nine weapons, seized from Kevin DiBiase during
a drug case in 1996, and six department owned weapons. Googins said Lt.
Frank Toderico, a licensed firearms dealer, estimated the guns, some of
which are automatics, to be valued at $6,300.

“I don’t want one of these weapons to come back in a crime trace,”
Googins said of his request to destroy the weapons rather than sell
them to licensed firearm dealers.

    Jim Soule, a collector of weapons, said he would “hate to see something of value just be thrown away.”

    He said Googins’ concern as well as a concern
expressed by Mayor Claude Morgan that the guns could later be used to
commit a crime was not a solid reason to destroy the weapons.

    “It’s not the gun that commits the crime, it’s the criminal,” he said.

    Linda Boudreau agreed and said although she would
not be holding up the issue, she thought it would be better to sell the
guns to someone who would appreciate them and enjoy having them.

    Jim Hughes inquired whether the department could
make an announcement to the public and encourage people to turn in
their guns.

    Googins said the department could take that step since there is interest.

    The council will address the request again at a future council meeting.