PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A 19-year veteran Providence police officer is accused of breaking into a distribution center and stealing bundles of coupon fliers for The Providence Journal.

Patrolman Jesse Ferrell was arrested Friday morning shortly after he forced open a door at the distribution building at 135 Harris Ave., said Deputy Chief Thomas F. Oates III. Officers from the department's internal affairs bureau had him under surveillance, and they arrested him as he drove away.

Ferrell was arraigned Friday afternoon by a bail commissioner at the Public Safety Complex on a felony charge of breaking and entering, and larceny, a misdemeanor. He was released on $10,000 personal recognizance for a pretrial date of July 15, Oates said.

Ferrell is suspended without pay, Oates said.

Ferrell came under investigation about two weeks ago, when Distribution Services of Rhode Island, an independent contractor for home delivery of The Journal, contacted the internal affairs bureau, Oates said.

The business noticed that bundles of fliers prepared for the Sunday newspaper were disappearing from the building, Oates said. He declined comment on how many were taken or what was happening to them, citing the ongoing investigation.

"There is a market for them," the deputy chief said.

Ferrell, a Providence native, is a patrol officer in the West End on the day shift. He was off-duty at the time of his arrest.

Union president Sgt. Robert Boehm said he was notified about the arrest Friday morning. He said Ferrell had not contacted the union for representation or advice.

The arrest was a surprise. "He's got a good reputation," Boehm said. "He's known in the street. He's a good cop."

When he was a school resource officer in 2009, Ferrell rescued a Liberian teenager whose relatives sent him back to Monrovia, took his passport and abandoned him in that city. Ferrell worked to bring him back safely.

—amilkovi@providencejournal.com

(401) 277-7213

On Twitter: @amandamilkovits