Police in Norway, Paris and Oxford have a mutual aid agreement.
By Jim Smedley
Staff Writer

NORWAY – Police Chief Tim Richards asked selectmen if they would expand police jurisdiction enabling them to make arrests outside of Norway.

He told the board Thursday that an amendment to state law allows police to make nonwarrant arrests outside Norway if approved by the town.

Richards said he learned about the law while attending training for police chiefs in December.

“I talked to the officers in the department about it and they liked the idea,” Richards said.

He said even though the law allows for arrests when police are off duty, he would encourage those in his department to use that power only in an emergency.

To make this type of an arrest, the officer must be working full time and have graduated from the state police academy.

Police in Norway, Paris and Oxford have a mutual aid agreement by which they can work in each other’s towns as long as the help was requested.

If selectmen approve the Norway police request, it would be the first of the three Oxford Hills towns with police to have the expanded capabilities.

Richards told selectmen that a driver escaped a probable operating under the influence conviction earlier this winter because of a technicality that this new law could erase.

He said a Norway officer traveling through Paris was flagged down by a resident who pointed out a car that was driving erratically.

The officer found the car and pulled the driver over. After calling Paris police, the Norway officer questioned the driver and learned that he had been drinking alcohol.

The Paris officer arrived and suggested that the Norway officer complete the arrest.

“It made sense to the officers at the time,” Richards said. “So, he (Norway officer) continued with the whole case.”

When the case came to court the driver’s attorney pointed out that the Norway officer did not have the authority to stop his client and that Paris police had not requested assistance before the incident.

Charges were dropped against the driver.

“Having this in place would be a good thing,” Richards said. “If something immediate is going on and an officer sees it, he can handle it. He can try to stop the action before any other damage is done.”

Selectmen favored expanding the Norway police jurisdiction, but wanted to confer with the town attorney before acting.

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