The recent departure of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents from the territory has prompted local officials to work on a bill that would give the agents arresting powers, but holds back on granting them full-blown peace-officer status, according to Attorney General Vincent Frazer.
In an investigative report published last week, the Source reported that ATF, which helps regulate guns and battle violent crime, pulled all four of its agents out of the territory last fall. The ATF’s departure was triggered, according to a letter by U.S. Attorney Paul Murphy, by the resistance its shooting team investigators reportedly encountered from local law enforcement when they arrived to investigate a shooting involving ATF officer William Clark, who had intervened in a domestic-violence situation at Mahogany Run involving a resident and his girlfriend.
The relationship between local and federal agents was further strained by Attorney General Frazer’s decision to try Clark in local Superior Court, where he couldn’t invoke the Good Samaritan Statute, which allows a federal officer to intervene in threatening situations under the guise of official duty. Federal agents working in the territory also do not have peace-officer status, which would allow them to enforce local statutes and gives them a layer of immunity in the event something unexpected happens during a criminal investigation.
Frazer said during a Senate hearing Monday there’s a "misconception" that federal agents working in other U.S. jurisdictions are given full peace-officer status. They are instead given "specific, narrow authority," and rely on state legislatures to give them added authority to intervene in other state matters, he said.
Without knowing the agents’ backgrounds, it’s better for the local government to be cautious when granting certain powers, Frazer told senators.
"We have to be careful about how we give that authority and how it’s used to enforce the local laws," he said.
Other local attorneys general have granted peace-officer status to federal agents, but there is nothing in the V.I. Code that gives them that authority, Frazer explained.
"I was asked to do the same thing, but when I looked at the law, I found I had no authority to do that," he said. "I was surprised."
Gov. John deJongh Jr. is currently in Washington, D.C., discussing the bill with ATF officials, along with the status of agents working in the territory.
