Source: https://www.nlelp.org/md-tsrp-may-2016-blog/
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 05:21:39+00:00

Document:
This month’s Blog comes courtesy of a question posed by an officer of a Maryland municipal police agency: In a situation not involving “hot pursuit”, can a law enforcement officer stop and detain a suspected impaired driver while outside that officer’s jurisdiction?
(a) Scope of section. – This section does not apply to an employee of the Department of State Police to whom the Secretary of State Police assigns the powers contained in §2-412 of the Public Safety Article.
(b) In general. – (1) Subject to the limitations of paragraph (3) of this subsection a police officer may make arrests, conduct investigations, and otherwise enforce the laws of the State throughout the State without limitations as to jurisdiction.
(2) This section does not authorize a police officer who acts under the authority granted by this section to enforce the Maryland Vehicle Law beyond the police officer’s sworn jurisdiction, unless the officer is acting under a mutual aid agreement authorized under §2-105 of this subtitle.
(4) The powers granted by this section are in addition to the powers granted by §§ 5-801, 5-802, 5-807, 5-808, and 5-901 of the Criminal Law Article and to the powers of fresh pursuit granted by Subtitle 3 of this title.
In the case of Boston v. Baltimore County Police Dep’t, 357 Md. 393 (1999), the Maryland Court of Appeals addressed a case almost squarely on point. Boston involved a Hearing Board matter in which the Appellant was sanctioned with the loss of five days of leave as a result of his pursuit of a vehicle for a traffic violation committed outside his jurisdiction.
Officer Boston, a sworn member of the Baltimore County Police Department, was driving his marked police car at 2:00 a.m., cutting through Baltimore City as a shortcut from one part of the county to another while responding to a call. While at a stop light on Wikens Avenue in the City, a car came through a red light, nearly collided with Ofc. Boston, made a sharp left turn, and proceeded east on Wilkens Avenue, initially swaying back and forth. Believing that the driver might be intoxicated, Boston turned on his flashing lights and pursued the vehicle for the purpose of making a traffic stop. Although there were no more erratic or evasive moves by the driver of the car, it did not stop. In his testimony before the hearing board, Officer Boston indicated that the vehicle was not being driven in an unsafe manner. At that point, several City police vehicles joined in the pursuit and the pursued vehicle increased its speed to 50-60 MPH. Ofc. Boston ended his pursuit at that time. A short while later, the vehicle went through a stop sign and collided with a taxicab, killing the passenger. The driver was found to have both cocaine and an over the legal limit level of alcohol in his blood. The crash occurred about 3 ½ miles inside the City. Officer Boston had pursued the vehicle for appx. five minutes.
The Court also addressed the question of whether this situation rose to the level of an “emergency” and determined that it did not. The Court stated that when Officer Boston commenced his pursuit, all he knew was that the driver had run a red light, nearly collided with him, and, after making a sharp left turn, briefly swayed. The Court stated that while the vehicle merited being stopped for traffic infractions (though not by Officer Boston), the actions of the driver did not require a finding, as a matter of law, that driver’s actions constituted an “emergency” as it is defined in the code.
The good news is that, according to the Maryland Court of Special Appeals, the remedy for an alleged violation of CP 2-102 is not the suppression of evidence.
Miller v. State, 151 Md. App. 235 (2003) was a Maryland Court of Appeals case involving two Baltimore County police officers who observed a vehicle being driven by a man, both the vehicle and the man matching the description of a subject suspected of having committed rapes in both Baltimore County and Baltimore City. The detectives had gone to a specific location in Baltimore City, seeking to find the suspect. When he was spotted, he had a female passenger in the vehicle. He was then stopped and arrested. The defense sought to suppress the evidence recovered in the resulting stop and arrest on the theory that these facts did not constitute an “emergency” and that none of the other requirements of CP §2-102 existed, therefore making the stop and search unlawful.
[e]ven if the officers did not have authority under § 2-102 of the Maryland Criminal Procedure Article to arrest appellant, the court had no legal basis upon which to suppress the evidence obtained from that arrest. Maryland does not have an independent exclusionary rule, Howell v. State, 60 Md. App. 463, 466, (1984), nor does § 2-102 create one.
In Maryland a private person has authority to arrest without a warrant only in very limited circumstances: a.) when a felony is being committed in the officer’s presence; b.) when a felony has in fact been committed, whether or not in the officer’s presence, if the arrester has probable cause to believe the person he arrests has committed it; or c.) a misdemeanor is being committed in the presence or view of the arrester which amounts to a breach of the peace. Kauffman, The Law of Arrest in Maryland, 5 Md. L. Rev. 125, 155 (1941); 49 Op. Atty. Gen. 11 (1964). Great Atl. & Pac. Tea Co. v. Paul, 256 Md. 643 (1970).
State v. Grijalva, 2015 Ariz. App. Unpub., Lexis 194 – A Border Patrol agent, however, may act as a private person and “make a lawful citizen’s arrest pursuant to [A.R.S.] § 13-3884.” State v. Garcia-Navarro, 224 Ariz. 38, ¶ 12, 226 P.3d 407, 410 (App. 2010). Section 13-3884(1) allows a private person to make an arrest “[w]hen the person to be arrested has in his presence committed a misdemeanor amounting to a breach of the peace.” Under Arizona law, DUI is such an offense. State v. Chavez, 208 Ariz. 606, ¶ 16, 96 P.3d 1093, 1097 (App. 2004). Arizona.
Boston’s (Appellants) final argument is that his conduct was justified as a “citizen’s arrest” — that he had the common law right that any citizen has to effect an arrest when observing the commission of a misdemeanor that amounts to a breach of the peace…  [  the] fact is that Boston was not acting, or purporting to act, in the capacity of a private citizen. He was a police officer on active duty, driving a marked police car with overhead lights flashing and siren intermittently blaring. He remained in official contact with his dispatcher and was attempting, as a police officer, to stop and detain the driver. Quite apart from whether any stop, had it been effected, could have been justified under the law of arrest as a citizen’s arrest, the effort to make the stop constituted the extra-territorial enforcement of the motor vehicle laws by a police officer, which Baltimore County police regulations, in conformance with State law, forbid.
So while not directly addressing the issue of whether a DUI constitutes a misdemeanor amounting to a breach of the public peace, the Court seemed to indicate that anything short of the officer being in plain clothes and driving his own personal vehicle would not give rise to a successful citizen’s arrest argument.
Note of Caution: It would also appear that the officer making the initial stop outside his jurisdiction – if not in compliance with CP §2-102 – may be subject to civil liability as a result of any injuries sustained by the driver or other occupants of the stopped vehicle as a result of acting outside the limits of his or her jurisdiction. Subsection (d) of CP §2-102 states that a police officer who acts under the authority of §2-102 has all the immunities and liabilities as a State Police officer. By implication, that would seem to indicate that if not in compliance, then immunity may not exist.
It is strongly recommended that officers in municipal departments consult with their departments’ legal counsel (or that of the Maryland Chiefs of Police Association) regarding this subject. This type scenario is clearly a double-edged sword: On one hand, officers could potentially face civil (and possibly criminal) liability for conducting an extra-territorial traffic stop based upon a violation of the Maryland Vehicle code. On the other hand, what are the potential ramifications (real or practical) if a clearly dangerous and erratic driver is observed by an out of jurisdiction officer and no attempt is made to detain him (short of reporting the observations), especially if the impaired driver goes on to kill or seriously injure another?
Given the advancement in technology and new and upgraded police dispatch capabilities it would seem that these concerns are no longer present. Perhaps it is time to look into amending the statute to allow for motor vehicle stops outside an officer’s jurisdiction in those situations that pose a danger to the public, namely, driving while impaired. It would be very hard to justify to the family members of someone killed by a drunk driver that a police officer observed the drunk driver prior to the collision that took the life of a loved one, but were prohibited by statute from acting on it short of calling it in to another department.
AS ALWAYS, PLEASE CONSULT YOUR DEPARTMENTS LEGAL COUNSEL OR WITH YOUR LOCAL STATE’S ATTORNEYS OFFICE WITH ANY SPECIFIC QUESTIONS REGARDING THIS SUBJECT.

References: §2
 §2
 v. 
 v. 
 §2
 § 2
 v. 
 § 2
 v. 
 v. 
 § 13
 v. 
 v. 
 §2
 §2
 §2