Regional Arrest Powers Help Police Departments Communicate

The Avon Police Department's investigation of a 20-vehicle crash on Avon Mountain in 2005 that killed four and injured several was largely responsible for expanded regional arrest power in North Central Connecticut within the past two years.

When Avon officers went to Bloomfield to investigate American Crushing & Recycling, the company that owned the truck that caused the accident, Bloomfield police had to accompany them, which delayed the process, according to Avon Police Chief Mark Rinaldo. The Avon police led the initiative to increase jurisdiction in North Central towns and improve communication between departments, yielding the Non-Emergency Inter-Agency Agreement, adding full arrest power among those towns for misdemeanors and non-emergencies.

Town leaders and chiefs from Avon, Farmington, Simsbury, Bloomfield, Canton, Granby, Suffield, Windsor Locks and Windsor signed the agreement in 2008.

"We were the forefront of trying to get the process implemented," said Rinaldo, who became police chief in 2006 and was a police captain in 2005. "It enhances our ability to investigate and solve crime."

The Avon police were not otherwise inhibited in their investigation of the Avon Mountain crash, as felony arrests in other towns were already permitted statewide, but the agreement makes it easier for departments to work together in any case. In 2006, Avon police arrested David Wilcox – former owner of the American Crushing & Recycling – on four counts of second-degree manslaughter and five counts of first-degree assault, all felony charges. In 2009, Wilcox was sentenced to six years in prison. The agreement makes it easier to obtain a warrant for an arrest.

In towns outside of the agreement, an officer who witnesses a misdemeanor or traffic violation is considered a civilian, Lt. Marshall Porter of the Farmington Police Department said. Without the inter-agency agreement, conducting investigations in other towns requires the local department's presence, as was the case in Bloomfield.

Departments can invite outside police officers to join a case as part of a mutual aid agreement, but otherwise police need to wait for local law enforcement to arrive and give them permission to act if they do not have arrest powers in that town.

"It creates confusion and unnecessary time delays," Porter said."It turns into a quagmire."

The Non-Emergency Inter-Agency Agreement is one of the only regional arrest pacts in the state for non-emergencies and misdemeanors.

"It's added protection if needed," said Canton Police Chief Arciero, who joined the department in October after working for the state police. "At the right time, right place and right manner it will be very effective."

The agreement grants sworn police officers, whether on or off duty, "to take any action said officer could take in his or her own municipality, including the power to arrest for felony or misdemeanor offenses, issue summonses and infraction complaints for all offenses as applicable, including ordinance violations, without previous complaint or warrant."

Police officers already can make off-duty arrests in their own towns.

"[You're] a police officer 24 hours a day, seven days a week," Rinaldo said. "If you're at Walmart and see someone steal something, you're allowed to make an arrest."

According to the 2008 inter-agency agreement, if an off-duty officer in the region witnesses a traffic violation or misdemeanor crime in another town, that officer has the right to make an arrest even if the incident is not relevant to his or her department. Off-duty arrests are the most complicated part of the agreement, especially if an officer is in an unmarked car, Rinaldo said. That is part of the reason that the Hartford Police Department, which is part of the North Central Region, did not sign off on the agreement, he said.

Porter was the first to act on regional traffic arrest powers. One morning, when he was off-duty and driving through Avon in an unmarked car, a driver committed a traffic violation that involved a school bus. Porter intervened and discovered that the driver had recently received his driver's license and had an individual in the car before the six-month prohibition for driving with friends was up. Porter notified the Avon police and made the arrest.

Granby Police Captain David L. Bourque can recall one time when an off-duty Avon officer assisted with a felony arrest for a bank robbery at Northwest Community Bank in Granby. Though this was a felony arrest, already permitted without the inter-agency agreement, Bourque described the value in departments' enhanced capacity to work together.

"It's another set of eyes to stop a crime," Bourque said.

The agreement is not a license for officers to go on an arrest spree in other towns instead of concentrating on their own town, Porter stressed.

"This makes it easier and allows us to work together more quickly and efficiently," he  said.

The agreement is intended to smooth communications between departments and augments statewide arrest laws.

"It goes to support what departments are trying to do…. It allows us to [work] without running into questions or legality [issues]," said Lt. Nick Boulter of the Simsbury Police Department. "It's an added tool to stop crimes from happening and prevent dangerous driving."

However, more often than not, officers who witness a crime out of town will call the local police department first and act only if necessary, Rinaldo said. Protocol requires that officers inform the local police of a crime, whether or not they plan to take action

"Very rarely do people make off-duty arrests," Rinaldo said.

In the two years that the agreement has been in effect, police officers in the North Central Region have made arrests in other towns for non-emergency violations and misdemeanors only twice, Rinaldo said.  The second time was for another motor vehicle violation.

Boulter, Bourque and Arciero were not aware of any arrests under the Non-Emergency Inter-Agency Agreement by their officers or by outside police departments in Simsbury, Granby or Canton, respectively.

The agreement does not cover non-emergency or misdemeanor arrests in all Farmington Valley towns. For instance, though the majority of the Westfarms Mall is in Farmington, part of it is in West Hartford, which is not part of the North Central Region's inter-agency agreement.

"I'd like to see it expanded across our borders into West Hartford, Newington and New Britain," Porter said.