The town of Milo is considering disbanding its municipal police department in favor of a contract arrangement with the Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Department. It’s a consideration that is specific to that town — the chief and sergeant both left recently — but it suggests a process that other towns and counties could investigate.
Gov. John Baldacci has pushed to consolidate state departments and agencies, local school districts and jails and prisons. He is not likely to tackle the daunting task of nudging local police departments to merge. But county and municipal officials would be smart to look at achieving efficiencies in law enforcement to save money for the state, counties and municipalities.
An analysis of Knox County by County Commissoner Anne Beebe-Center in 2003 showed that 54 full-time law enforcement officers — 39 serving in local police departments and 15 with the Sheriff’s Department — served the county. By pooling resources to create a countywide force, she argued, specialty positions could be created and assigned to combat such regional problems as drugs, domestic violence and child abuse. Similar conclusions could be drawn in other counties.
Mergers of emergency dispatch services have worked out well, and the gloomy predictions of dispatchers not knowing street names in certain towns have not come to pass.
Mergers of police departments would not come as easily, and may result in a reduction in the quality of service for some communities. But the inefficiency of adjacent small towns paying for individual law enforcement costs — cruisers, buildings, chiefs, etc. — cannot be ignored.
An even bolder step is to study the role the Maine State Police might have in a more comprehensive approach to law enforcement. As it now stands, the state police often handle complaints on a fairly arbitrary basis; if someone calls state police dispatch, a trooper will likely respond. If the same complainant called the local sheriff’s department, a deputy would be dispatched.
A single, statewide law enforcement agency would not be accepted by Mainers who cherish local control. And such a large institution might not serve the people as well. But a middle ground may emerge through the strategy Milo is investigating, under which the town would contract with the county for three deputies who would live in the town or nearby. The Knox County island community of Vinalhaven has such an arrangement with Knox County, although it has been a source of conflict between municipal and county officials, with each believing they are giving more than the other.
Maine continues to be one of the safest states in the country, and that is attributable in large part to community-based law enforcement, which has been in effect long before that term was coined. But new economic and demographic realities mean fresh approaches to law enforcement must be considered.