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.