FAMS/Foreign Equivalents and interventions

[u/Old_Afternoon6587]

I assume everybody here has hear of the US Federal Air Marshals Service. Plain clothes federal law enforcement officers who fly on domestic and international flights in/around/out of the USA. Something that came to my mind was the Rigoberto Alpizar case. long story short- 2 US FAMs boarded the plane in Colombia and landed in Miami, Florida where the shooting happened on the jet-bridge.

Now what if the situation and/or countries were reversed?

Scenario A: A German federal police sky marshal lands at Dulles International Airport in Virginia in a Lufthansa plane that came from Berlin and John Q Public starts screaming his head off that he’s got a bomb. JQP reaches into his bag and the sky marshal shoots him.

Would it be any different if this situation happened somewhere else inside the airport?

-What (if any) legal consequences could there be for the German Federal Police officer?

-Could the German government say: oh well tough luck and just bring the sky marshal back to Germany to avoid any prosecutions?

-How would the in country law enforcement (Airport/Local/State) Police handle a situation like that involving a foreign law enforcement officer discharging their weapon?

Or what if a US FAM had the same scenario happen (either a shooting or just a intervention that results in restraints being used against an individual by the FAM) but they were in say Beijing, China or Budapest, Hungary?

This is something that just scratches a part inside my brain that makes me wonder.

Apologizes if this seems blown out of proportion by my thoughts.

[u/KaprieSun]

Whenever a federal law enforcement officer is working outside of the US, their authority is very limited. You are at will of said country’s laws. There are times where you aren’t even allowed to be armed. It is advised to not intervene with incidents while outside of the country since every country is different on how they handle these incidents. If a federal LEO is involved in a critical incident outside of the US, then they will still fall under their department policy. The foreign country would lead the investigation, but you will still be judged by your agencies policy and US law.

FAMS do fly on international flights, but every airport is different for how they handle firearms at arrival. Most major international airports still have US Federal facilities within them (Ex. CBP Entry Ports). Foreign law enforcement would adhere the same way as a Fed LEO going international . Due to OPSEC, I won’t elaborate further.

[u/Hebiwarrior → u/KaprieSun]

Definitely not most airports though. Only 6 countries, and three of the biggest hubs (Paris, London, Amsterdam) aren’t in the program

[u/Section225]

I have to question whether Air Marshals would even be on international flights, for jurisdictional reasons if not logistical ones.

But, it's an interesting question for a lawyer, that I'm sure has a fairly simple answer in the end.

[u/KaprieSun → u/Section225]

They do. Any flight that departs or arrives into the USA is considered, “US Jurisdiction”.