The convoy of Maine law enforcement officers stretched for four miles as more than 200 men and women in uniform left the state Thursday heading south for the funeral of a police chief shot and killed during a drug raid in his small New Hampshire town.
The death of Greenland Police Chief Michael Maloney, a 26-year veteran, just a few miles from Maine — and the fact that the number of law enforcement personnel gunned down on the job in the United States has increased steadily over the last few years — has officials in Maine worried.
“It hit very close to home for us, on a number of levels,” Darrell Crandall, the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency’s division commander for northern Maine, said Thursday. “The operation was being carried out by the New Hampshire drug task force. Many of us have worked closely with the agents involved.”
Seven law enforcement officers were killed in New England between 2001 and 2010, according to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports, and the country saw an average of nearly 60,000 law enforcement officers assaulted annually in the same time period.
In New England, 1,814 assaults on law enforcement officers were reported in 2010. The rate per 100 is the highest in the country at 3.3, according to the FBI data.
Drug use is to blame for a good portion of the increase in violence, Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety, said Friday.
“There is a penchant with increased violence that seems to coincide with increased drug use,” he said. “Drugs are an obvious cause of a great deal of the increased crimes in the last year in the state of Maine.”
The growing number of pharmacy robberies in Maine is a prime example, McCausland said. Of the crimes committed in Maine, 90 percent or more have a drug element, he said, meaning that officers always have to be on guard.
“That certainly also plays out with everyday traffic stops and everything a police officer has to do,” McCausland said. “They don’t know if that person is under the influence of drugs or another substance.”
A total of 49 officers were killed by gunfire in the U.S. in 2009, according to a recent U.S. Department of Justice report and the Officer Down Memorial Page website. The number increased to 59 in 2010 and 67 in 2011.
“That’s not minor,” Crandall said. “That’s huge and it’s just getting worse.”
Col. Robert Williams was one of 25 wearing a Maine State Police uniform at Maloney’s remembrance service Thursday. The other 175 men and women in uniform from Maine came from local and county departments, the warden service and corrections.
Drugs are definitely one cause for the increase in violence against police, but video games, lack of discipline and lack of respect for the law are contributing factors, too, said Williams, chief of the Maine State Police.
“They have no respect for authority and, more importantly, they have no respect for life,” he said. “We see that more and more.”
“They are used to playing video games and when you die you hit the reset button,” Williams said. “In their mind it’s exciting to them and it’s not real, [but] when you stab someone or shoot someone in real life, the game is over.”
Many of today’s youth never hear the word “no” and have not learned to take responsibility for their actions, he said.
“People today haven’t learned how to handle rejection, how to handle disappointment because someone has always swooped in and bailed them out,” he added. “In today’s generation everybody gets a trophy. They don’t keep score because somebody might lose.”
That has led to a lack of what Williams described as “coping skills.”
Sending his drug agents out to gather information or conduct drug raids — like the one that led to Maloney’s death — always makes him nervous, Crandall said.
“We’re seeing more and more violence. It’s a big concern,” he said.
When the MDEA raided a Hudson home last month and found $190,000 in bath salts, many people overlooked the numerous assault-style rifles and body armor confiscated at the same time, but not Crandall. He said he sees them as a sign of the ever-increasing danger.
As threats to police officers increase, so does the danger to the public, Crandall said.
“If we are finding the situation increasingly dangerous to our officers, we are finding the situation increasingly dangerous for neighbors, to members of the community, to people driving by,” he said.
To protect the safety of MDEA agents and the communities they work in, the MDEA tries to control the timing of drug raids but, Crandall admitted, “there are times we lose control of the timing by no fault of our own.”
Maloney, 48, was leading a New Hampshire attorney general’s drug task force that was trying to serve a search warrant on April 12 when the suspect opened fire. The police chief was killed and four other task force officers were shot and injured. His injured brothers-in-arms had recovered enough to attend his funeral, held at the high school he attended three decades before.
Ambushes accounted for about 80 percent of law enforcement officer fatalities in the first eight months of 2011, and “20 percent of the fatalities involved the serving of warrants,” said a U.S. Department of Justice report issued in September 2011.
“Over the last three calendar years, MDEA has executed 588 search warrants and has arrested 2,656 suspects,” Crandall said.
Maloney wasn’t the only law enforcement officer killed in the line of duty on April 12. In Modesto, Calif., Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Robert Paris was shot and killed while he and another deputy were serving an eviction notice at an apartment complex, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page website.
In Maine, 86 officers have died in the line of duty since the early 1800s, and 26 of those were caused by gunfire, the website states. The most recent was a state police detective shot and killed while responding to a domestic dispute in March 1989.
Of the 541 officers who have died in the last decade across the U.S., none have been from Maine.
The increase in violent crimes against police has not gone unnoticed by the federal government, which is studying pre- and post-crime reports to see if there are techniques that can be used to defuse a situation before it becomes deadly, said Roy McKinney, director of the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency.
One telling fact, he said, is that “80 percent of offenders who assault police have previous weapons offenses. … They think they have an advantage over the police.”
Maybe next time they decide to raid a house they might think about using an SRT team to stack up on the door and clear the house the professional way. Where there’s drugs, there’s normally guns. Sad story. Hopefully Maine law enforcement will stay on guard for the oncoming and ever growing wave of scum approaching the heart of Maine.
There are always so many unknowns, it does not matter how many officers, equipt.or whatelse you may have. We have to give them what they need when they need it, you never know when it is one of your family members in harms way.
I think they knew that the suspects inside were likely armed. I also know (from an earlier report in a different paper) that surveillance cameras were on the porch pointing at the street and driveway. By the way, SRT members are killed too in drug raids and the Chief was shot in the head. No one, even SRT members survive head shots.
Glad to see that Maine had so many represent in honor of the Chief!
Monday night quarterback…….
Isn’t it actually Friday? And yeah, it’s not like I didn’t learn anything about urban ops in the infantry there bud. I was just saying, it sounded like they weren’t prepared for a kick and serve. They gave the guy ample time to prepare his next move. They all got caught up in the “fatal funnel”.
So you were there. You witnessed the whole thing from beginning to end. So, please tell us what you saw. I really don’t give a rip about your “urban ops in the infantry” experience “bud”. If I sound angry, well I am. You weren’t there and you have NO IDEA what happened, how it happened and what they were or were not prepared for. Some times it is best to keep ones opinions to ones self.
Well said jd2008. he/she has no clue about the situation or anything for that matter.
Like most of the people who clammor to get their opinion in on just about every article? My father was a career police officer. Him having friends in NH on the force is where I got my info. You got your info above from Bangors most unreliable source. Go troll another page. I was jut pointing out a fact. No tac team= unpreparred.
I thank your father for his service and I speak from personal knowledge too having spent 25+ years in public safety. Hind sight is ALWAYS 20/20 and the could have, should have and would have is really easy to say when you weren’t there. But please, if you want to continue to post rubbish that does nothing but cause hurt and pain within the law enforcement community feel free. I am sure your law enforcement father would be very proud.
JD stop replying to his pointless rants. some people just go on this page to tell everyone how smart they are. The point is this man lost his life protecting the community regardless of what opinions people have.
I post something on this site maybe once a month. I tend to stick to the articles I know something about. Sorry you got all butt hurt about something that I was pointing out. I didnt go on talking about how “stupid” they were or anything derogatory like that. Chill out and relax. And yes, my father is very proud of me and vice versa.
Cops know the risk when they take the job.
Military rules of engagement and law enforcement use of force are entirely different situations that have almost no common ground. Tactics may be similar but you cannot approach a civilian standoff the way an infantry unit – even one doing peacekeeping or urban ops overseas would. It is not the same thing at all.
Dunno, my 27 years in law enforcement may have covered some training in how to approach people and houses. We don’t operate under the same rules as the military, nor do we have the same equipment.
Some times things go wrong, very wrong, just as some times things go wrong in the military. Once the investigation is done they will share it with LEO’s in new training in how to avoid what happened IF it could have been avoided.
Unlike TV every department doesn’t have a SWAT team available. A few larger departments in Maine have a SRT team, most rely on the State Police who has to call in the team from around the state. Our crystal balls don’t work that well so we can’t tell witch warrant or call will end with an armed encounter. We hope none but that is not what seems to happen more now a days.
I feel bad for a Chief who loved his job, loved his community and loved his family right up to the end. He could have stayed home, let someone else go to that call after all he was a short timer, only a few days left. But, he did his job, good bless him, his family and all the brothers and sisters who have chosen law enforcement as a career.
This was a horrible situation and I stayed up all night watching the whole thing unfold in ten minute updates online. It’s gut wrenching as a law enforcement wife to see day after day that there is another grieving widow. However I feel like this author needs to review his statistics. New England has six states and if you look on the Officer Down Memorial and total up the line of duty deaths for all of those states, there were at least 25 officers killed in the New England states, not 7. Just for 2010, New England had 6 officers killed in the line of duty. If you are gonna quote statistics on a subject that is tragic and extremely important to a lot of people, be sure you have the right information. On average every 53 hours an officer has made the ultimate sacrifice and not one of those officers deaths should be forgotten, even in an article in the daily news.
“They have no respect for authority and, more importantly, they have no respect for life,” he said. “We see that more and more.”
“They are used to playing video games and when you die you hit the reset button,” Williams said. “In their mind it’s exciting to them and it’s not real, [but] when you stab someone or shoot someone in real life, the game is over.”
Many of today’s youth never hear the word “no” and have not learned to take responsibility for their actions, he said.
“People today haven’t learned how to handle rejection, how to handle disappointment because someone has always swooped in and bailed them out,” he added. “In today’s generation everybody gets a trophy. They don’t keep score because somebody might lose.”
That has led to a lack of what Williams described as “coping skills.”
I couldn’t agree more or say it any better. This generation is going to present our generation with problems and expenses that are unreal.
On the one hand, everything Williams says here about my generation is generally accurate. We’re a mess, don’t know how to work, don’t know how to cope, half of us can’t even tie our shoes in the morning. It’s disgusting.
On the other hand, even in small towns, the police have been responding more and more with hostility when I approach them with a simple question. “Hi, good morning, how are you, what’s going on with this roadblock here?” and “Can I get through to the parking lot this way, or do I need to go in the other way?” both seem like perfectly reasonable questions, but the responses to them were nothing short of hostile. I made every effort to begin the conversation politely, but the response was not. I’ve known some retired law enforcement officers who have told me about the mentality that creeps into their psyches–a perspective that splits the world into friendlies (in uniform) and perpetrators (the people they spend most, but not all, of their time dealing with). There’s this huge third category, the public, who pay for this whole song and dance and ought to be treated with simple dignity when they approach an officer with a polite question. Yes, most of my generation is totally dysfunctional, and yes, they have to deal with the worst of them every day. I get that, I have to deal with them too, and I’m usually good and fed up by the end of the day. But as hard as it might be, I think the police ought to at least begin politely when they are dealing with the public.
Some other officers, usually higher ranking, have been perfectly decent to me. To be honest, I was slightly rude with them, they responded politely, we came to an agreement and the situation ended with a laugh and a have a good day. I don’t know what the major malfunction is with these younger officers. Maybe they’re from my generation?