EASTPORT, Maine — Eastport Police Chief Frances LaCoute has resigned her position effective Oct. 15.
Eastport City Manager Elaine Abbott confirmed Wednesday that LaCoute notified the city on Sept. 15 that she would be leaving in a month.
Interviews with four candidates for the position are set for Friday, Abbott said.
Reached by phone Wednesday, LaCoute would not comment on her reasons for resigning or what she would do next.
The local weekly newspaper, The Quoddy Tides, however, reported that LaCoute had an offer to return to the Pleasant Point Police Department, where she got her start just nine years ago. Pleasant Point Chief Pos Bassett did not immediately return phone calls Wednesday.
LaCoute, 60, was a late bloomer, getting into police work at the age of 51.
She is one of only a handful of female police chiefs in the state of Maine, according to Robert Schwartz, executive director of the Maine Chiefs of Police Association.
Schwartz said he was aware of only three — Knox County Sheriff Donna Dennison, Wilton Police Chief Heidi Wilcox and Westbrook Police Chief Janine Roberts.
LaCoute said she decided to get into law enforcement because she had gone through some “life changes” — namely breast cancer, diagnosed in 2001 — and was ready for something different.
A Passamaquoddy who grew up in the Eastport area and now lives in Perry, LaCoute became a patrol officer with the Pleasant Point Police Department after graduating from the state police academy.
She held that position for three years before working for the next three as years as the department’s sexual assault investigator. Then, she spent three more years as second in command.
She began her duties as chief in Eastport on Jan. 23.