Despite injured officer, police will continue to send support

The shooting in nearby Greenland that injured UNH police detective Eric Kulberg — who, according to a press release from the university, is expected to make a full recovery — is just one example of how the UNH police work to protect and serve campus, as well as various towns around the area in the state of New Hampshire.

The Thursday, April 12 shooting injured four officers, including Kulberg, and killed Greenland Police Chief Michael Maloney. Maloney was scheduled to retire April 20.

“UNH police, like other law enforcement agencies, provide support to other agencies as requested through the mutual aid compact,” Paul Dean, executive director of public safety, said.

This mutual aid compact can be seen in Revised Statutes Annotate (RSA) 105:13 from the New Hampshire General Court.

In this compact, two “chief law enforcement officer[s]” will make an agreement with each other that their officers’ authority will “extend to any other city or town in the state.”

RSA 105:13 explains that “in an emergency situation, the ranking on-duty law enforcement official of a town or city is authorized to make an oral request for assistance to … the responding town.”

The chief officers can cancel their agreement if they wish, but for now, UNHPD will keep its compacts with other departments.

According to Dean, the incidents the department is called into other towns for range “from a motor vehicle accident to a missing person search.”

Dean also said that the reasons for being a part of these mutual aid compacts varies, but they are “normally when the requesting agency’s needs exceed their resources.”

The most common towns that UNHPD gets called in to help include Newmarket, Lee and Madbury.

Dean said that he can’t remember the last time an officer was injured, but that injuries would not stop the department from “[sharing] resources and [helping] each other.”

“The primary mission of the University of New Hampshire Police Department is the protection of life and property,” according to the UNHPD’s Mission Statement. “This is accomplished through fair, consistent and equal enforcement: always keeping in mind the rights and dignity of the public.”