SANFORD – The Sanford Police Department plans to ask town councilors to give its officers the power to make arrests not just in Sanford, but anywhere in the state.

Police Chief Tom Jones said his proposal, which he plans to present to the council next month, seeks to give full-time Sanford police officers statewide jurisdiction to enforce felony laws or make arrests in dangerous situations.

A 2003 state law gives local police departments statewide arrest powers with the permission of their local governing body. If the Sanford Town Council approves the plan, the department will become one of only a handful statewide with such powers.

Jones said his department has drawn up extensive standard operating procedures for arrests outside Sanford.

The new powers, he said, would help his department investigate and make arrests in complicated cases that involve several communities, such as drug investigations. Statewide arrest powers also would cut down on work for communities that now must issue warrants and make the arrests for outside law enforcement agencies.

“We are not authorizing the officer to go out of town and start making traffic stops,” Jones said.

Police in most communities have no jurisdiction outside their own borders, beyond the right to make a citizen’s arrest.

Jerry Hinton, president of the Maine Chiefs of Police Association and also police chief in Brunswick, sent out queries to between 80 and 90 departments this week, trying to get a feel for where other communities stand on the issue. He said he has received fewer than a handful of responses back with mixed results.

Some police departments, such as in Cumberland and Saco, have indicated they are not going with statewide authority, while Oxford already has statewide arrest powers and an official there told Hinton it’s working well.

Bangor has mutual aid agreements with some surrounding communities that allows them to come in and assist when needed, Deputy Chief Pete Arno said Friday.

Still other police departments are waiting to see how it pans out elsewhere before committing one way or the other, Hinton said.

In Brunswick, the Town Council gave its police statewide jurisdiction on a one-year trial, and only for felonies.

Hinton said there have been no reports of rogue police behavior, and that public safety has improved because there are more police officers who can operate statewide.

The trial period ended in September and Hinton said he intends to bring the issue back before the council, possibly in February.

Hinton was a strong supporter of statewide arrest legislation after working in New Hampshire, where local police have had statewide jurisdiction for years. He said Brunswick councilors’ main objections to extending his officers’ arrest powers were economic. He said councilors wanted police officers enforcing laws for Brunswick taxpayers, not for taxpayers in other communities.

But Hinton said the broader authority is intended for more serious crimes and incidents, and to provide assistance, not as a way for officers to cross into other jurisdictions for minor traffic infractions.

“This helps everyone in giving more eyes and ears out there to protect the residents,” Hinton said.

Two weeks ago, Brunswick police officers and city officials in two unmarked cruisers came across an estimated 10 vehicles that had slid off Interstate 95 between Bowdoin and Gardiner, the Brunswick police chief said. Despite not having jurisdiction, the officers stopped anyway to see whether they could help.

And last year when the SUV carrying Gov. John Baldacci crashed on Interstate 295 in Bowdoinham, it was a Brunswick officer who was on the scene first, Hinton said.

It’s the nature of law enforcement with officers trained to respond when needed, Hinton said. So not responding is a hard thing for officers to overcome.

In Sanford, Jones said he expects the idea will face similar concerns about costs and does not expect his proposal to be an easy sell.

York Police Chief Douglas Bracy said he, too, plans to go before the town’s selectmen to ask for extended arrest powers.

He said statewide jurisdiction would improve public safety in geographically large communities with limited police resources. York officers, he said, sometimes can respond more quickly to serious offenses in a neighboring town than the local department can.

Bracy said it is obvious on any ride down the interstate that many Mainers know local departments have no jurisdiction. “If they see a municipal [police] unit, they still go by at 80 or 90 miles an hour.”

Not all police chiefs are enthusiastic about statewide arrest powers. Saco Police Chief Bradley Paul said his department has little need for them.

“In Maine, we have a comparatively low crime rate, and particularly a low violent crime rate. We function pretty well under the old law,” he said.