(a) Any housing authority created by § 8-40 shall have the power to establish a housing authority police force, the members of which shall be employees of such housing authority and shall be known as housing authority police officers. Housing authority police officers shall be appointed by the local board, agency or person empowered to appoint municipal police officers, subject to approval of the housing authority. The requirements for appointment as a police officer in the municipality in which the housing authority is located, except for age and physical qualifications, shall be mandatory for housing authority police officers in such municipality. No person shall be appointed to such housing authority police force unless he has been awarded a certificate attesting to his successful completion of an approved municipal police basic training program, as provided in § 7-294e. The initial appointment shall be for a probationary term upon completion of which the appointing authority may promote such probationary officers to permanent status; provided such promotion shall be in accordance with procedures applicable to municipal police officers in the municipality and shall be made subject to the approval of the housing authority. Housing authority police officers shall have and exercise the powers and authority conferred upon municipal police officers and shall be subject to the ultimate supervision and control of the chief of police of the municipality in which the housing authority operates.

(b) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (a) of this section, any housing authority police force which existed prior to October 1, 1970, pursuant to Title 1 of Public Law 89-754, 80 Stat. 1255, the Demonstration Cities and Metropolitan Development Act of 1966, and which, for any reason, does not constitute a housing authority police force pursuant to subsection (a) of this section, shall constitute a housing authority police force pursuant to this subsection and the members of such police forces may exercise the powers granted to such members pursuant to this subsection. The members of such police force may act, at the expense of the municipality, as special police officers upon property owned or managed by any housing authority. Such special police officers: (1) May arrest, without previous complaint and warrant, any person for any offense in their jurisdiction, when such person is taken or apprehended in the act or on the speedy information of others; (2) when in the immediate pursuit of one who may be arrested under the provisions of this subsection, may pursue such offender outside of their jurisdiction into any part of the municipality to effect an arrest; (3) shall be peace officers as defined in subdivision (9) of § 53a-3; (4) shall have the authority to serve criminal process within their jurisdiction; (5) shall, when on duty, wear a uniform, distinct in color from that worn by the police officers of the municipality; (6) shall, when on duty, wear in plain view a shield, distinct in shape from that worn by the police officers of the municipality which shall bear the words “special police”; (7) shall complete a forty-hour basic training program provided by the municipality within one hundred eighty days of June 27, 1983; (8) shall take an oath of office.