Police and Jurisdiction

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45SigSauer

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I have a question for the Law Enforcement hero's on this board. What's up with the jurisdiction in NW Indiana? Does it no longer apply? For example: Yesterday I saw Dyer PD pull a car over at SR 231 & US 41, thats about 10 miles from the town of Dyer, I have seen Lowell, Cedar Lake, St. John, Schererville, Merrillville, Crown Point, Etc.. pulling cars over anywhere from 2 miles, to well over 15 miles outside their town limits. Can they legally do this?
 

jerk

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I have a question for the Law Enforcement hero's on this board. What's up with the jurisdiction in NW Indiana? Does it no longer apply? For example: Yesterday I saw Dyer PD pull a car over at SR 231 & US 41, thats about 10 miles from the town of Dyer, I have seen Lowell, Cedar Lake, St. John, Schererville, Merrillville, Crown Point, Etc.. pulling cars over anywhere from 2 miles, to well over 15 miles outside their town limits. Can they legally do this?

Yes, they are sworn Indiana police officers and all or most are trained at the Indiana police training academy. (common law and common training) Arrest and enforcement powers are statewide. (within the confines of state law)
Now there maybe some procedural details involved or restrictions placed on them by the jurisdiction that pays the salary.

The other reason could be the witnessed the violation in their jurisdiction and it took that look to get them to stop/catch up/get back up etc.
 

jblair

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Law Enforcement Jurisdiction

There may be one of several ways an officer can make a stop outside his regular jurisdiction. One is fresh pursuit. If a violation occurrs in his jurisdiction and he is following and attempting to stop a vehicle he can follow it to affect a stop. Another is that the jurisdiction that he is in has a standing agreement or there has been a law passed (as there has been here in Johnson Co. KS) that any agency can make a stop in another agencies jurisdiction that they border. Another yet is that the officers may be commisioned by the county sheriff and actually have jurisdiction no matter what is labeled on the patrol car.

Also on some stops, especially if there is an attempt to locate out, in the case where a neighboring agency
may be helping look for a particular vehicle or person, the officer that spots the vehicle outside his jurisdiciton will call to that jurisdictions officers asking to stop the vehicle. The officers is then deputized
in that jurisdiction for the stop as he is if any agency calls and asked him/her for assistance.

A lot of times though the driver just does not stop immediately when the red lights come on. jb
 

AK9R

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Now that Hendricks County has centralized dispatching, you are likely to see police officers responding to all kinds of calls that you might think are outside their jurisdiction. For example, if there's a run in the northeast part of the county and a Brownsburg car is closest, they may get the run rather than waiting for a Hendricks County Deputy who might be a long way away.
 

ind224

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leo is leo is leo

Any marked car or any officer in uniform can make a traffic stop, period, in Indiana.
 

ind224

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I did not know this one

IC 8-3-18-1
Authority
Sec. 1. The conductors of all trains carrying passengers within this state shall be invested with police powers while on duty on their respective trains.

There is more to this IC, just do "Indiana Code" on Google. Then you can search the specific code(s).
 

aandraldaba

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east chicago, in.
I have a question for the Law Enforcement hero's on this board. What's up with the jurisdiction in NW Indiana? Does it no longer apply? For example: Yesterday I saw Dyer PD pull a car over at SR 231 & US 41, thats about 10 miles from the town of Dyer, I have seen Lowell, Cedar Lake, St. John, Schererville, Merrillville, Crown Point, Etc.. pulling cars over anywhere from 2 miles, to well over 15 miles outside their town limits. Can they legally do this?

its probably a special drug task force. i live in east chicago, in. and maybe once a month they have practically all the towns you mentioned above pulling everyone over and thier in thier own squad cars. and using county frequency.
 

Viper43

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its probably a special drug task force. i live in east chicago, in. and maybe once a month they have practically all the towns you mentioned above pulling everyone over and thier in thier own squad cars. and using county frequency.

Nope, the law in Indiana is pretty specific in that an officer in uniform and in a matked vehicle can make traffic stops anywhere in the state. The only jurisdiction limit is the state lines. Even off duty an officer seeing a crime in progress has authority to intervene whether in their city or county or not. Indiana LEO's are on duty 24/7 365.

Also DNR and Park Police have authority anywhere in the state as well.... just ask the one guy who refused to stop for an Indy Park Ranger and wound up charged with fleeing and eluding among other things.

V
 

mmccardia

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This was settled in about 1979 by State supreme court. A State certified LEO is an LEO anywhere in the state. The question is and has not had any court rulings yet-- special deputies and contables and other officers that my have some powers may not be truly state certified??? Do they have power outside their juristiction?? I wouldnt want to be the one to spend a hundred thousand to get the case to the supreme court to make a decision on that one.
 

AK9R

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The question is and has not had any court rulings yet-- special deputies and contables and other officers that my have some powers may not be truly state certified???
That's an issue that would have me concerned about moving back into Marion County. With all of the private security officers, constables, park rangers, and school police running around, it's kinda hard to tell who really has law enforcement powers and who doesn't. I'm sure the various agencies are clear on their standing within the law, but it's a bit confusing to the public.
 

ten78

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Private security personnell only can have special dep powers that are only valid at the location they are working. They are restrictive powers. All others have full powers- Constables, school police etc. and reserve officers
 

h00sierdaddy

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Lake County, IN
I have a question for the Law Enforcement hero's on this board. What's up with the jurisdiction in NW Indiana? Does it no longer apply? For example: Yesterday I saw Dyer PD pull a car over at SR 231 & US 41, thats about 10 miles from the town of Dyer, I have seen Lowell, Cedar Lake, St. John, Schererville, Merrillville, Crown Point, Etc.. pulling cars over anywhere from 2 miles, to well over 15 miles outside their town limits. Can they legally do this?

As somebody mentioned earlier, they are on a task force of some sort... drug taskforce, DUI taskforce, etc... it is made up of all departments within the county.
 

kadetklapp

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The only police officers that I know of that do not have police powers anywhere in the state would be any University Police Officer. They have the exact same training, but due to the fact that it's a University police department, that is not non-profit, the state does not allow it. The way around this is "jurisdictional agreements" with surrounding agencies, and in some cases, University police officers being "sworn in" as reserve deputy sheriff's for the purposes of having powers to assist those agencies. I believe this was up for debate a few years ago, that may have changed and UPD officers are now considered like the rest.

The newly formed gaming commission officers may not have full powers either, but I'm not sure.

I'm a full-time special deputy for a sheriff's department. By policy, my powers stop at the end of county property. I do have full arrest and police powers though, because I'm a deputy town marshal for another agency. Reserves, Town Marshals, Reserve Marshals, Special Deputies, IDNR COs, State Troopers, Excise officers, City Officers, Railroad Police, and State Fire Marshals all have full police/arrest powers AFAIK...
 
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Viper43

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I always thought it was strange when I lived in PA that when I was a school police officer I had more powers than a sheriffs deputy had there, they were not allowed to do much of anything back then except serve warrants, jail and cout house security and security at county government buildings while school police had full police powers in the state. We though had to use out own vehicles while the deputies had county owned cars and so on.

V
 
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