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When drivers pull onto College Avenue there are signs indicating they are entering a 25 mph zone. What few may realize is that they are driving on a unique stretch of road – one that falls under the jurisdiction of five separate law enforcement departments.
The two-and-a-half-mile stretch is part of the towns of Orono and Old Town, with just the first three-quarters of a mile in Old Town.
Property abutting the avenue also belongs to the University of Maine, allowing members of UMaine’s Public Safety to have jurisdiction there as well. Maine State Police and officers from Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department can also enforce the law on that road.
The possibility of being pulled over by one of five different agencies can create confusion for some drivers.
“I’ve had people say ‘you’re not an officer in Orono, how can you pull me over?’” said Officer Deb Mitchell, crime prevention specialist for UM Public Safety.
But officers do have the right to pull someone over. “You’re not immune if it’s a different town,” Orono Police Chief Al Dravidius said.
If someone violates the law while in an officer’s jurisdiction and the officer cannot make a stop until the person is in another town, the officer can still cite him or her for breaking the law because the incident originated in their jurisdiction, Mitchell explained.
If an Orono officer is in Old Town and sees someone run a light or break another law, that officer does have the right to pull the offender over. From there the proper course of action would be to call the Old Town Police Department and have one of their officials take action, Dravidius said.
“Can an officer be in transit and see something? Yes,” Dravidius said. “Does he or she have a duty? Yes. Is there an expectation that they would take action? Of course.”
Members of the Old Town Police Department follow the same protocol.
“I would try to get an Orono officer to stop them,” Old Town Patrolman Thomas Adams said. “But as long as we have some suspicion of that vehicle, that could be erratic operation – anything – we can still stop them.”
But an officer from that town or the State Police or Sheriff’s Department would have to cite the driver.
If someone is speeding on the UMaine campus and pulls onto College Avenue or leaves a fraternity driveway or the Steam Plant parking lot, a Public Safety or Orono police officer could pull the alleged offender over and cite him or her, Mitchell said.
“Anything that is owned or controlled by the university on either side of the avenue, we have jurisdiction,” Mitchell said. “We have the same jurisdiction leeway as any municipal police department.”
But that doesn’t mean that UMaine Public Safety makes a habit of stopping cars on College Avenue.
“We don’t sit on College Ave. and stop cars as a norm, but we will stop them if they are in gross violation of the law,” Mitchell said. “We try to focus on the campus.”
Because the University of Maine is in the town of Orono, the two departments do have contact with each other.
“We help each other out, absolutely,” Mitchell said. “We have a unique situation because [UMaine] is like a town within a town that has its own police department.”
With five departments having the authority to write tickets on the avenue, a sizable amount of money stands to be collected.
But it doesn’t go to the town or department that writes the tickets.
“When we write traffic summonses, it’s the same as Orono,” Mitchell said. “The money goes to the state because we function as a working police department, and we write the same type of traffic summonses as any other department in the state.”
And like most law enforcement agencies in the state, they try to keep their eyes on their respective areas.
“We’re busy enough in our own towns that we focus on our own jurisdictions,” Mitchell said.
But that doesn’t mean the presence of law enforcement in that area isn’t appreciated.
“The more eyes and ears you have, the better off you are,” said Lt. Alan Stormann of UMaine Public Safety. “The more presence, the less opportunity for crime and a greater opportunity to be proactive.”
Bangor Daily News