It’s after 1 a.m. on a recent shift when Dover-Foxcroft police Officer Charlie Edgerly pulls his cruiser up to the Dover-Foxcroft municipal building and hops out to check a door.
Finding the door unsecured and the hallway lights left on, Edgerly goes inside and walks the length of the building, stopping to rattle doorknobs on the interior doors of the municipal office and private businesses. Finding them secure, he checks the bathrooms before he shuts off the lights and locks the outside door.
As Dover-Foxcroft’s night watchman, Edgerly has spent 35 years rattling doors to businesses to make sure they are secure, intercepting drunken drivers, reporting structure fires and keeping an eye out for any illegal activity in his community.
The 66-year-old police officer, who will retire on Dec. 3, said he has enjoyed his police career for the most part but believes it’s now time for someone younger to take his place.
“When I retire, I’m not going to do a blessed thing with law enforcement,” Edgerly cracked during an interview while on a recent patrol from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.
Edgerly recognizes it will take some time to change his circadian rhythm, but he said he’s looking forward to enjoying sunshine instead of the stars.
“It takes a special person to work every night, five days a week,” Dover-Foxcroft Police Chief Dennis Dyer said Thursday. Dyer, who worked with Edgerly both as a co-worker and his boss for more than 30 years, said Edgerly will be “sorely missed.”
While on patrol, Edgerly has called in several fires over the years, most of which occurred at night during winter months, according to Dyer. He said Edgerly would pound on doors to wake up the occupants and help them to safety. His heroic efforts were recognized several years ago by the Dover-Foxcroft Fire Department.
“We’re going to have to really search far and low to find somebody to replace Charlie with his qualifications,” Dyer said.
Business owners also will miss Edgerly’s devotion to his community. Howard Leland of Napa Auto Parts said Edgerly has helped protect local businesses. “I think he has a real interest in Dover-Foxcroft businesspeople,” he said. Leland recalled that Edgerly called one winter to let him know the chimney to his store had been broken by the weight of the snow. He’s the set of eyes a community needs to make sure everything is the way it should be, Leland said.
For Edgerly, working the night shift as a police officer was an easy transition from long-haul driving for private contractors. “I like nights. It’s cooler, it’s peaceful and usually if there is some kind of activity it’s not something to write home about,” he said.
There have been the exceptions. Edgerly said he never would be able to shake the horrific death of Vickie Lynn Cumming, 28, who was murdered in 1990. The young mother was abducted by her former husband, David Cumming, and deliberately run over by him after she had jumped from his moving vehicle to escape his abuse.
“I found her,” Edgerly recalled. He said the husband had run over the woman once and turned his vehicle around intending to run over her again when Edgerly arrived at the scene.
Cumming received a 60-year sentence on the murder and abduction charges.
“That was one of my down moments, and it still puts me down when I think about it,” the officer said of the woman’s death.
Edgerly also recalled having a gun stuck in his face and his leg clamped in a dog’s mouth during his tenure, but despite those random acts of violence, he said the good in his community far outweighs the bad.
“I’m where I wanted to be,” Edgerly said. “I don’t dwell on the bad stuff. I don’t take it home with me. I deal with it.”
Deal with it he does, said Dover-Foxcroft police Officer Todd Lyford, who calls Edgerly the comedian on the force. Even after Edgerly gave Lyford his first speeding ticket when he was a teenager, Lyford has always held Edgerly in high regard, he said.
When Edgerly started his job in 1975, the late Chief Herb Green handed him a .38-caliber special with a bent barrel, a set of handcuffs and about eight rounds of ammunition and told him to go do his job. He also inherited a dome light that had to be placed on the dash in the lone cruiser for emergencies and a large, low-band ra-dio that took up much of the cruiser’s back seat, he recalled with a hearty chuckle. At the time, he was one of three full-time officers who patrolled the town.
Things have improved over time for the department, Edgerly said. Today, the department has a crew of five full-time officers and modern equipment to back them up.
Despite the difference in the size of the department over the years, Edgerly said he found both Green and Dyer fair and supportive and he could always depend on his co-workers in any emergency.
As for other changes during his tenure, Edgerly believes the worst that has happened is reflected in the court and juvenile systems. “There are no penalties for juveniles,” he said. He said if parents see their child do something wrong, they shouldn’t deny it but let the child face the consequences. It’s a learning tool and children learn from their mistakes, he said. Edgerly said he does everything he can to help children identify right from wrong.
“The kids know when I say something I mean it, and I’ll tell them only once and they respect that; my word is all I’ve got,” Edgerly said. He wishes that same respect was shown in all homes.
Dyer said Edgerly has a special relationship with the children in the community. “He is like a father to all [of] them; he’ll stop and talk to the kids,” Dyer said. “And over the years, a lot of kids would come in and talk to Charlie about different things that happened around town.”
Edgerly said he has found that people don’t have the respect for law enforcement that came in his earlier years, and that is noticeable in the courtroom. He said it used to be that officers would follow the book and cases would be handled on their own merits. Not so today, Edgerly said. “Now you don’t go into court to prove they’re guilty; you go into court to prove yourself innocent,” he said.
Despite that frustrating change, Edgerly said law enforcement is both rewarding and challenging. “If you can help one person and turn them around, it’s good,” he said. Even better, he said, is when someone whose path you’ve helped change returns and gives you a big thank you. “It’s what it’s all about.”