Court Opinion

ID: 9743952
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 21:50:58.188298+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:45.914242
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE FREEMAN, specially concurring: I concur in the holding of the majority. Officer Beyer’s extraterritorial conduct did not constitute a valid citizen’s arrest. I write separately to address an additional concern. At the time of this arrest, Officer Beyer was fully cloaked in the indicia of his office as a Sleepy Hollow police officer. He was seated in his police vehicle, fully clad in his Sleepy Hollow police uniform, and had set up radar surveillance. Significantly, it appears that Officer Beyer was officially on duty, and accountable to the citizens and the police department of Sleepy Hollow at the time of this arrest. Having determined that Officer Beyer acted beyond the scope of his authority, the State seeks to validate his improper assertion of authority as a citizen’s arrest. I am troubled by this backdoor approach to proper law enforcement. As the majority opinion points out, except in certain circumstances, police officers have no authority beyond the jurisdiction in which they are empowered to act. To so easily permit validation of an unauthorized arrest as a citizen’s arrest renders the jurisdictional requirement a nullity. Taken to its logical extreme, as long as the officer’s conduct can be accommodated within the scheme of a valid citizen’s arrest, the officer need not be concerned that his extraterritorial conduct is unauthorized. At first glance, it would appear that validation of an unauthorized arrest of an offender is a result which is wholly beneficial to society. After all, the law is enforced; the offender is apprehended. Certainly, I do not discount this as an advantage. Unquestionably, my concern is not for the misfortune of the offender whose initial unauthorized apprehension is subsequently validated. However, such a benefit is not without its costs. What of the citizens of the municipality whose protection and safety have been entrusted to the on-duty officer? The municipality has, no doubt, allocated financial resources and manpower for the protection of its citizens and the enforcement of laws within its boundaries. While the on-duty officer is servicing another jurisdiction, his own municipality is ill served. The citizenry is less protected and deprived of services which its tax dollars have funded. Additionally, I believe that sanctioning the extraterritorial conduct of an on-duty police officer, by validating that conduct as a citizen’s arrest, may have negative implications for the officer as well as for the officer’s municipality. When an on-duty officer acts outside of his jurisdiction, problems are created in terms of the officer’s legal responsibility and accountability. Furthermore, generally, the municipality bears responsibility for the actions of its officers who are acting within the scope of their authority. However, when the on-duty officer acts extraterritorially, the municipality must confront issues of insurance and liability beyond those which it normally faces. In light of these considerations, other than in exceptional circumstances, such as where the officer is in fresh pursuit, I would decline to hastily validate an extraterritorial arrest of an on-duty officer. A refusal to sanction such conduct deters on-duty officers from disregarding their jurisdictional constraints and responsibilities to their own municipality.