Comment by Terry Bressi (1042)

Entered on: 3/4/2008 8:58:15 PM

Federal agents are not Arizona peace officers so there's no legitimate reason why felony charges should have been dropped against this Border Patrol agent for impersonating a police officer.

In order to be considered a peace officer in Arizona, you must be certified through AZ POST. The closest a federal agent can come is to be cross-certified by the county sheriff in the county he/she is operating in. The agent is then limited to enforcing state law insofar as it furthers his/her legitimate federal law enforcement mission.

Since enforcing local speed limits is well outside any legitimate federal law enforcement interest and there's been no mention in the news that this agent was ever cross-certified to begin with, it's pretty clear felony charges against this agent were dropped for political reasons.