A bill that would give arresting powers to federal officers and clearly define what type of force law enforcement personnel can use when making an arrest was submitted to the Legislature Thursday by Gov. John deJongh Jr.
Citing his growing concern over the rising level of violence in the territory, deJongh said in a letter to Senate President Louis P. Hill that the government must "continue to look at additional avenues and take further appropriate steps that are necessary to ensure the safety of our community."
The first section of bill allows officers to use "any force which the officer reasonably believes to be necessary" to protect himself from "bodily harm."
"The arresting officer may also use appropriate force to defend another person from such aggression, or when there is a fleeing felon who reasonably appears to be a danger to the officer or the populace," according to the bill.
This section of the bill sets a standard to which peace officers can be trained and will help the Police Department meet the mandates of a recent consent decree that addresses VIPD’s use-of-force issues, the governor said in his letter to Hill.
The second section of the bill offers a compromise to the ongoing local debate over what powers should be granted to federal agents working in the territory. A few months ago, a Source investigation reported that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which helps regulate guns and battles violent crime, pulled all four of its agents out of the territory last fall.
The ATF’s departure was triggered, according to a letter by former U.S. Attorney Paul Murphy, by the resistance its shooting team investigators reportedly encountered from local law enforcement when they arrived to investigate a shooting involving ATF Officer William Clark, who had intervened in a domestic violence situation at Mahogany Run involving a resident and his girlfriend.
The relationship between local and federal agents was further strained by Attorney General Frazer’s decision to try Clark in local Superior Court, where he couldn’t invoke the Good Samaritan Statute, which allows a federal officer to intervene in threatening situations under the guise of official duty. Federal agents working in the territory also do not have peace-officer status, which would allow them to enforce local statutes and gives them a layer of immunity in the event something unexpected happens during a criminal investigation.
In his letter to Hill, deJongh said his bill does not provide "for a wholesale grant of authority for federal law enforcement personnel to carry out local law enforcement activities." Instead, it requires federal agents to register with the local police commissioner when they arrive in the territory and allows them to make arrests in certain situations.
"Whenever a federal law enforcement officer acts in accordance with this section, he or she may be deemed a government employee … except when acting under the authority of federal law," according to the bill.
DeJongh said Thursday this provision can help the government in confronting criminals and gives both federal and local officers the chance for more "positive interaction."
"This measure will supplement our territorial peace officers, not supplant them, as some have incorrectly argued," the governor wrote in his letter to Hill.
