23 February 2004
Bruce Jackson
Niagara Falls cowboy cops endanger critical Peace Bridge negotiations
Three Niagara Falls police cars raced across the Rainbow Bridge and went right through the Canadian customs facilities in Niagara Falls, Ontario, on Wednesday, February 18, thereby complicating the most important international negotiation currently going on in connection with the Peace Bridge expansion project—cross border management.
Cross-border management is the name of the plan which defines the border as an international zone and which would, therefore, permit shifting inspection facilities to whichever side can best handle them physically. In the case of the Peace Bridge, that’s the Canadian side, which has far more space in an area with far less population and other traffic. Shifting the inspection facilities now in Buffalo to Fort Erie would free up much of the land that used to be Front Park and Fort Porter, and would help alleviate the air quality problems caused by idling diesel trucks at Peace Bridge Plaza.
Some Canadian officials, however, are reluctant to allow gun-toting Americans on their side of the border. They say Americans are too macho and too quick to resort to violence, that the two styles of law enforcement are too different for that kind of collaborative operation. American officials say that perception is unfounded, that American customs, INS and other inspectors would use proper restraint.
Then the Niagara Falls, New York, police department got into the act. They were pursuing an armed man who, after a domestic dispute in Buffalo, stole a car and kidnaped its owner and then, then, when the car had a flat tire, stole a pickup truck and e raced across the Rainbow Bridge into Niagara Falls, Ontario. Neither he nor the three Niagara Falls, NY, police cars following him in hot pursuit stopped at the Canadian customs inspection booths. Once they got into Niagara Falls traffic the US policemen were ordered by their supervisors to turn around and come home immediately, which they did.
The driver they were pursuing went on to hit two parked cars and to run down a woman getting out of her car, killing her. He fired shots at Canadian police trying to arrest him and was subdued and arrested by two civilians and by a constable who never drew his pistol from its holster.
According to the Buffalo News, Niagara Falls police superintendent John R. Chella said, “After reviewing reports, speaking with the officers that night and retracing the route they took on the Rainbow Bridge, I am very confident in the actions they took and fully support their efforts."
His confidence is misplaced. New York police in hot pursuit may be permitted to follow suspects across jurisdictions within New York State, but there is no hot pursuit authority across either of the United States’ international borders: no US municipal, state, or federal lawman can go into Mexico or Canada and do anything without specific prior authorization from the appropriate Mexican or Canadian officials.
From the point of view of everyone working to make shared border management an operational reality, the impulsive action of the drivers of the three police officers was an unfortunate blunder. Superintendent Chella’s support of the chase after the fact compounds the problem because those remarks lends support to Canadians opponents of shared border management who say they worry about American disregard for Canadian law.Copyright 2004 by Buffalo Report, Inc.