ONYX

Cops could cross county lines in pact

Wednesday, 15 June 2011 00:00

Memorandum would allow easier access

by ERICA MITRANO, Staff writer

Sheriff's deputies from St. Mary's and Calvert counties will be allowed to perform some duties in Charles County under an agreement approved Tuesday by the Charles County commissioners.

The mutual aid agreement, which does not go into effect unless approved by the other counties, also would allow Charles County sheriff's officers to serve arrest warrants, pursue criminal motor vehicle violations and have general law enforcement authority in the other Southern Maryland counties, Charles County Assistant County Attorney Amanda Gibson and Assistant Sheriff Joe Montminy told the commissioners before their 4-0 vote.

An officer from another Southern Maryland county "may lawfully go or be sent beyond the boundaries of the county of their own jurisdiction and may make arrests, conduct investigations, and otherwise enforce the laws of the State of Maryland while in Charles, Calvert, and St. Mary's Counties without limitations as to jurisdiction and without the presence of a [local] law enforcement officer," the agreement states, provided that the outside sheriff's office notifies the local force and offers it the opportunity to send a representative of its own as well.

Commissioner Debra Davis (D) ended up voting for the measure but not before asking several questions about accountability and liability.

"Does this provide for urgency or immediacy or are we just crossing [county borders] willy-nilly?" she asked.

Montminy answered that both emergency and routine measures would be covered by the agreement.

"It's the same bad guys in all three counties. We're, many times, just going across the line," he said.

Gibson said the agreement was similar to others already in place between county boards of education and between Charles County and the base police force at Patuxent River Naval Air Station.

"It's just a nice way to ensure if help is needed, it can get here, it can come," Gibson said.

Davis also asked which county would be legally liable if a sheriff's deputy from another county abused a citizen here.

The county employing the deputy would be responsible, Gibson and Montminy answered, because deputies remain under the supervision of their home departments and because the counties immunize one another from liability in the text of the agreement.

The mutual aid agreement, which was made possible by a recent change in state law, will make law enforcement more efficient, Montminy said.

Currently, officers can serve warrants in neighboring counties only when accompanied by a local deputy, something that can lead to hours of delay, he said. He also said he did not believe Southern Marylanders would regard other counties' deputies differently from their own.

"A deputy is a deputy. A police officer is a police officer, and that's what they see," he said.

Commissioner Ken Robinson (D) spoke in favor of the agreement.

"To me, it looks like it's streamlining a very important aspect of law enforcement in the region," he said.

Commissioner Reuben B. Collins II (D) was absent from the meeting and did not vote.

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Source: SoMDNews.com, http://www.somdnews.com/article/20110615/NEWS/706159738&template=southernMaryland