Sec. 1. 30-A MRSA §2671, sub-§2-B, as enacted by PL 1993, c. 594, §2, is amended to read:

2-B. Liability. When a municipal police officer makes an arrest, as authorized in subsection 2-A or subsection 4, outside of jurisdictional limits of the municipality in which the police officer is appointed, that police officer has the same immunity from tort liability and all of the pension, relief, disability, worker's workers' compensation, insurance and any other benefits the police officer enjoys while performing duties within the police officer's appointing municipality.

Sec. 2. 30-A MRSA §2671, sub-§4 is enacted to read:

4.__Multijurisdictional thefts.__If there is probable cause to believe that more than one theft committed pursuant to one scheme or course of conduct by the same or several persons has occurred in more than one municipal jurisdiction, a police officer in a municipality in which at least one of the thefts was committed may investigate and assist in the prosecution of all the related thefts.

SUMMARY

This bill permits local law enforcement agencies to consolidate theft investigations in multiple jurisdictions in order to simplify the investigative aspects of theft crimes, to conserve limited economic and time resources of the agencies and to strengthen the deterrent effect of successful investigations and prosecutions of theft crimes.