The state House of Representatives passed a bill Wednesday authorizing the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribal police departments to enter into mutual-aid agreements with municipalities.

The state Senate unanimously had approved the measure in April.

Under the bill, the tribes, through their chief executive officers, will be able to enter into mutual-aid agreements with municipalities on the same terms as municipalities can now do with each other. The authorization is valid as long as the state-tribal agreements that established the authority of the tribal departments remain in effect.

“It permits towns, if they want or need additional police officers, to ask for help from the tribal departments — and vice versa,” Chief State’s Attorney Kevin Kane, whose office helped draft the bill, said earlier. “It doesn't require anybody to do anything; it permits them to do it.”

Signed in 2014, the tribal-state agreements granted the tribal police departments greater roles in policing their reservations, which include Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun.

— Brian Hallenbeck