Fryeburg police ask for support in face of opposition

Dutton: 'My concerns are about the current leadership'

Concerned a movement is afoot to eliminate the police department, which has been in place since 1968, Chief David Miles and his officers are asking for community support.Fryeburg currently has five full-time and four part-time officers. It's a force Miles wouldn't trade for the world. "I am extremely proud of each and everyone of them," he told reporters at a press conference last week. "They all go above the call of duty for this town. Each and every one of them wants to do more on their own time for the town." "Unfortunately," Miles continued, "there's a small context of the voters who have an issue with the department and have tried to undermine and try to make us look bad. They think we need to be done away with."Miles, who declined to name the people who oppose the department, said they have appeared regularly at the selectmen's meeting and made their feelings known on Valley Vision, the local Public Education Government channel which broadcasts the meetings. "Their viewpoints are being heard very loudly and you can't just get into a debate with them. You kind of have to sit back and take it. We'd just like to make a point that we don't feel the department is in disarray."Resident James Dutton said he supports the police force, but would like some changes made, particularly at the top of department. "I do have some criticism of the leadership in the department," he said. "I in no way want to criticize the officers -- I think we have some fine people. My concerns are about the current leadership."Dutton said several months ago, at a board of selectmen's meeting, he asked a simple question that may have been taken out of context. "I raised the question of what would happen at town meeting if a zero budget were voted in for the police department," he said. "The selectmen answered in a roundabout way that there would be no police department. I just asked the question and it was done and over. Later in the meeting I told selectmen I would be putting together a petition for a town manager and somehow it got misconstrued that I was going to petition to eliminate the (police) department. I asked the question and the whole intent was to try and have Chief Miles understand there were some issues and they need to be dealt with... I don't want to see us without a police department -- that would be crazy. I just want us to have a police department we can all be proud of."Miles believes that some people who oppose the department feel the town could be served adequately by Oxford County Sheriff's Department and Maine State Police. He disagrees."We figured there are roughly a million people who come through this town during the course of the year," Miles said. "We have half million here over an eight day period during the (Fryeburg) Fair. In the summer, there are no end of rallies in which we'll get 1,000 to 1,500 campers here at a time. You throw in covering the Saco River, which is debatable how many people are on it in a given day, it's literally 100,000 a summer. Route 302 is the second largest entry point in the state of Maine... Our population goes from between 3,000 and 4,000 up to 7,000 and 8,000 during the summer -- there's an awful lot of second home owners, I don't think anyone realizes the amount of people we deal with.""We provide 24-hour around-the-clock service," he continued. "We may have periods where we have to cut back an hour or two due to sickness, vacations and work details. We're extremely fortunate to have such an experienced department. Turnover is very high in the law enforcement community... 1998 was the last time we sent anyone to the (Maine Police) Academy... Everyone knows the officers here and can put a name to a face. That sort of relationship is critical in this field.""If things don't get better," Sgt. Wayne Brooking said, "I would hazard to guess that the turnover rate will grow here."Brooking said he has spoken with officers from the sheriff's department and state police and they do not believe they could offer comparable service to the local force nor around the clock service."Neither has the ability to be here just like that," he said. "They are covering 10-12 towns and if they happen to be in Buckfield when you need them, it's going to take a while... I think there are two main issues if we went away. One is the response time. Here, we have 24-hour coverage, If at 3 a.m. someone broke into your home and you called police, a Fryeburg officer would be there in minutes. It might take a state trooper 20, 30 minutes to an hour depending on where he's at when the call comes... Another issue is control, which is something people here feel very strongly about. If a person feels there's a speeding problem on Pine Street, they can go to selectmen voice their concerns and the board may assign the department to monitor the road for a day. The sheriff's department and state police can't do that."Police responded to 2,015 calls for service last year, up 346 over 2001 and up 722 since 1995.Miles said it's "'simply not true," when people claim the department is not being proactive. Three years ago he asked Maine Chiefs Association to visit the department and offer suggestions in areas it felt could be improved. "We asked them to come and do a study," he said. "We took the recommendations and have continued to address them."Reserve Officer Lori Descoteaux said the department formed a law and order committee last year to address public concerns, but after just a few meetings attendance dropped off and it fell by the wayside.Perhaps the biggest concern of the department is the perceived lack of support of the board of selectmen. "My take is the selectmen have not taken a stand one way or another," Brooking said. "Publicly they've not said anything."In a show of hands, all five of the officers at Tuesday's press conference felt they do not have the town fathers' support."This particular group (of citizens) think what they're doing is serving as a motivator," Miles said, "but they're not motivating, all they're doing is hurting morale. We have enough problems maintaining law and order and public safety, we don't need this."Miles hears the department is not active enough in the schools. He disagrees. "I think if you ask the schools they'll tell you're they're supportive of this department," he said. "People say we don't have a school liaison officer. I'm 110 percent in favor of having one. We need to put together grant applications because the town doesn't want to take on another employee... We did the DARE program for 11 or 12 years. We were very supportive of the program. When we first started out there were 35 people on the steering committee. In the end we got down to three people including (Sgt.) Mike (McAllister) and myself. It's the same thing with the Law and Order Committee. Lori tried to do a neighborhood watch, but there wasn't enough interest to do it."We could have advertised it anymore than than we did," Descoteaux said. "It could have been very positive for the town, but it never turned into anything."Miles admits he's fearful that citizens may come to town meeting this spring and try to eliminate the department. "Not a lot of people attend the meeting to begin with," he said. "If we get a day with bad weather and the people who don't want to support us all come out, they could vote not to fund the department and we'd be done... If they do away with the department in terms of who is being injured it's not these officers it's going to be the community. Everyone of these officers would be welcome with open arms on any department around the state... A portion of this is aimed at me, with past employees having a vendetta and looking to fuel the fire. As I've said in the past, I worked before I came here and I'll work again.""The sad thing as officers," Brooking said, "it's bringing all of us down. There are officer now who are looking to leave town. (Townspeople) may soon know what it feels like to have (police officers) just come and go."