Earlier today I observed a Town police car pull a vehicle (tourists, so I guess they didnt know any better) over in the County.   This was 5-10 miles from the Town's limit.

Outside of an agreement with the Sheriff's Department, would a Police Officer from Town A have any jurisdiction to enforce traffic regulations outside of Town A?

Issues to consider... where you stop has no bearing on where the offense was observed.  

Or... the city could have some outlying annexed areas that allow traffic enforcement on the roads/highways that the land touches.

Then again, there could be a mutual aid agreement for traffic... who knows.

5 miles vs 10 miles is a big difference... sounds like you are not really that sure.

height=8

Quoted: Issues to consider... where you stop has no bearing on where the offense was observed.   Or... the city could have some outlying annexed areas that allow traffic enforcement on the roads/highways that the land touches. Then again, there could be a mutual aid agreement for traffic... who knows. 5 miles vs 10 miles is a big difference... sounds like you are not really that sure.

I understand that if the offense was committed within the Town's limits that the Town Police could pull them, and as for the distance, it's a really curvy, windy road and I had just returned from grocery shopping and wasnt really paying attention.

I just wanted to know that if I was driving along in the County and a Town cop pulled me, what the result would be when I challenged it in court, assuming that there is no recriprocal agreement between agencies.

Vermont is pretty cool.  The whole State is my jurisdiction.  We do have mutual aid with NH border towns.  It is common to attempt to initiate a car stop and due to circumstances less that a pursuit the vehicle does not stop until in NH.  The one thing VT Officers have to remember is to notify Operators during traffic stops that the stop is being audio and video recorded.  This is a NH law and not required in VT.  

I think each stop would have it's own circumstance which in totality would keep the stop legitimate from legal and policy perspectives.

Mike

Thanks for the replies!  I guess this is one of the many billions of instances where "Totality of Circumstances" applies.

I work in a small town and its not uncommon to stop vehicles and issue citations outside our jurisdiction, the only catch is that any offense that we observe outside the city limits and write must be sent to the local JP's(justice of the Peace) office. We dont make practice of running traffic outside our jurisdiction,but sometimes you witness serious violation that just need to be enforced. I was coming back from assisting on an accident and checked a blue Nissan 350Z at 114 in a 55, lets just say we had ourselves a come to Jesus meeting.

I'd rather have someone outside of their jurisdiction stop me rather than this:  Driving along nearly deserted highway at night, no lights, just woods and roads...and one other vehicle slowly overtaking me in the next lane of traffic.  I didn't pay him much attention until he got along side of me and then hit me with his alley light right as I glanced over at him!  Thanks for nearly causing an accident and blinding me HPD while reminding me I was 5 mph over the limit.  

In Indiana a sworn Officer can enforce state law (including traffic law) anywhere in the state.  There are no jurisdictional boundaries within the state.  That said, it would definitely be frowned upon if I chose to drive 5 miles out of the city I work in and run traffic.  If I am en route to work and observe a violation out in county, then it is perfectly fine for me to make a stop.  

Quoted: Earlier today I observed a Town police car pull a vehicle (tourists, so I guess they didnt know any better) over in the County.   This was 5-10 miles from the Town's limit. Outside of an agreement with the Sheriff's Department, would a Police Officer from Town A have any jurisdiction to enforce traffic regulations outside of Town A?

Every police department has a policy in place for such situations as you have described. It's not the same everywhere.

This may help answer your question, you can see a traffic offense occur in your jurisdiction and you can follow outside of your jurisdiction to give them a ticket. It's not like in TV where the cop brakes to a halt at the county line and throws his hat on the ground.

I work for a County Police Department and have jurisdiction in all the towns and cities in the county.  The other week I stopped a lady inside the city limits and she told me I couldn't write her a ticket because she was in the city.  I told her to make sure she remembered that when we went to court!

I would say it would depend on if it was a town ord. or a state law violation tha intitiated the traffic stop.

The one I see around my town that I always question are MP's that are not on base or in based owned housing making traffic stops.  I never looked into if the are sworn officers of Ohio, but I see it regularly.

Dan

Double Tap

Quoted: I'd rather have someone outside of their jurisdiction stop me rather than this:  Driving along nearly deserted highway at night, no lights, just woods and roads...and one other vehicle slowly overtaking me in the next lane of traffic.  I didn't pay him much attention until he got along side of me and then hit me with his alley light right as I glanced over at him!  Thanks for nearly causing an accident and blinding me HPD while reminding me I was 5 mph over the limit.

I had an officer in the median shine me with his spotlight through my windshield.  I turned on my 100 watt, windshield mounted Hellas in response.  I was surprised I didn't get pulled over.

He could have observed a traffic violation in his AO & just not had the opportunity to make the stop in his AO or the veh could have been called in as a possible DUI & the ofc happened to locate it/not been able to catch up to it for a while, he could have been working a traffic project during his off duty time; like Operation Pull Over that's funded by federal grant money & in most cases these projects offer you the opportunity to roam around your county or a surrounding agency could have been tied up & his agency was asked to asist & there was a need to have that veh stopped per a complaint. Any number of things could be the case & most states certify their ofc's with state wide powers. If I'm at a school 6 counties away & I observe a violation that needs to be addressed then I can make the stop. I will call for an ofc with the respecitve ageny in that AO to make the scene, write the ticket & I will supplement a case for their prosecutor to have to decide whether charges need to be filed & how to contact me should the offender contest the charges, etc.

in my city we have to drive 11 miles to the jail and cross in to two other cities on the way.  I have stopped several cars coming back from the jail that were obvious DUI's and to unsafe to let go.  This was in UTAH and Utah states you are a law enforcement officer in that State you are required to notify the responsible agency for that area if you make a stop.  Since our dispatch ran the whole county I always just called the Sheriff's department and signed as a witness if there was a law violation. I only did this if the person or violation was dangerous enough to warrant the stop.  I worked for the SO and new most of the guys so they did not get pissed I was pawning off on them but I would not do it on tic-tac stuff.

I have a city and county commision.  

If I stop a car in the county, it goes to district court.
If stopped in the city, it's municipal court.

Totallity of the circumstance thing.


A side note:  If you make 3 right turns and say I'm home free...  We have to stop following you. caselaw. Dorothy v OZ (You heard that here in BS)

Quoted: In Indiana a sworn Officer can enforce state law (including traffic law) anywhere in the state.  There are no jurisdictional boundaries within the state.  That said, it would definitely be frowned upon if I chose to drive 5 miles out of the city I work in and run traffic.  If I am en route to work and observe a violation out in county, then it is perfectly fine for me to make a stop.

Oregon is the same way.

I have no idea about NC state laws but here in Texas any LEO can enforce traffic laws in the county that they have jurisdiction in.  

Ex. I work for a city that has jurisdiction in xxx county.  I am on my way home and live outside the city that I work for.  but my home is still in the county where the city is (I also live about 18 miles outside my city).  On my way home I see some dumb ass do something real stupid (otherwise I would not bother) so I conduct a traffic stop and make contact with the person.  If this were something that I would issue a citation for, I would now have to issue it for the JP in that part of the county instead of for our municipal cort.

Keep in mind, this is not just a 9-5 job.  There have been many times that I have made DWI arrests while outside my city.  I would not be doing my job if I let them go on down the road and kill some family.  

IL passed a law that recognizes such cases and allows automatic recognition in cases where aid is requested, due to an event like a riot or disaster overwhelming local resources.

And IIRC, after Katrina similar legislation was discussed on a federal level, to allow aid from other states to assist in disasters. Not sure if it passed or not.

Of course, back in the day it was commonplace for the SD to deputize local LEO's, to avoid interjurisdictional , especially in cases of "mutual aid".  (Issued 'em neat ID cards & everything ) A side effect was the way the ILCS was written, a deputy in IL was an "auxiliary" ("adjunct", or similar language) State Patrol officer, and thus had jurisdiction anywhere in the state.

Not sure if that's still true, but..