Damariscotta Police Chief Ron Young plans to apply knowledge from his career in the military and both small-town and urban law enforcement on the job.
He hopes to move forward from the turbulence of recent years at the Damariscotta Police Department, and expressed confidence in the ability of the department to do so.
“I want to make this department the best it can be. I want people to want to come work for this department. I want people to come live in this town and feel safe in this town and want to be here,” Young said.
“I want (people) to say, ‘That’s a good department. They’re run well. There are good officers there, they’re ethical, they’re honest, they have a high level of integrity and they do their job,'” he said.
The son of a Marine, Young joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1987 at the age of 19. He was stationed in California for four years and served six months in the Gulf War with the 2nd Battalion 5th Marine Regiment.
The leader of a machine-gun section, Young saw combat after the end of the war as he and his section searched the desert for armed stragglers, some as young as 13 years old.
The retreating Iraq army set fire to hundreds of oil wells in Kuwait at the end of the war. Young was able to count 180 fires one day from his position in the desert.
“It’s just amazing, how far the flames would shoot up and how hot it was, and at 10 o’clock in the morning it would be like midnight, because it would block out the sun with smoke from the burning oil wells,” Young said.
“The sand was completely black with tar,” Young said. “As vehicles would drive through, you’d see the tar stick to the wheels and you’d see the path where they drove through the tar.”
After the war and an honorable discharge from the Marines, Young returned to California, where he soon became a corrections officer with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department.
He had a 10-year career with the county as a corrections officer, an instructor at the corrections academy, a patrol deputy and a member of the Special Enforcement Detail, the department’s SWAT team.
The department awarded Young its Medal of Valor for his part in the team’s response to an April 11, 2001 triple homicide at an apartment building in Chula Vista.
The actions of Young and the other members of the detail demonstrated “courage in the face of extreme danger and personal risk,” “extraordinary teamwork” and “outstanding tactical skill,” according to the medal, which hangs in his Damariscotta office.
A native of Belfast, Young moved home to Maine in 2003, where he became a patrol officer and field training officer with the Belfast Police Department. He accepted a new position as Lincolnville police chief in February 2008.
Former Gov. John Baldacci, the Maine State Police and the Waldo County Sheriff’s Office recognized Young for his role in a Halloween 2008 hostage situation at Stockton Springs Elementary School.
He had responded to school shootings in San Diego County, and “if my training and experience could help out, I was going to go there and do whatever I could,” he said.
The off-duty chief and officers from other agencies talked to the gunman through the door of a fifth-grade classroom, and he eventually released the hostages unharmed.
“I love kids,” Young, a father of three, said. “If you hurt a kid, I’m going to hold you accountable.”
In June, Lincolnville residents closed the police department with a 187-163 vote, and Young, the town’s only full-time officer at the end, found himself out of a job.
“It hurt. It was stressful,” Young said. “I put five years of heart and soul into that town, and I think I did a really good job … I’m emotional about it because I love the town and I like the people there.”
The chief acknowledged that he thinks about coming to a town where many residents would like to eliminate the police department.
Small-town police departments will always have opponents who dislike law enforcement or think it costs too much, Young said, but a small-town department will always provide better service than an agency responsible for a wider area.
“I always have a concern, but I think some of the things I can bring to this town can really make a difference here,” he said. Regardless of what might happen, he is “committed to the town,” he said. “I plan on being here for as long as they let me.”
Young is Damariscotta’s third police chief in as many years, following the resignation of Steve Drake in spring 2011 and the demotion of Chad Andrews to deputy chief in March.
Young is aware of the recent turnover at the position, but hopes to break the trend. “I’m looking forward to the future,” he said. “What happened in the past is in the past.”
Andrews, the deputy chief, “is a great resource to know what’s going on,” Young said. “He has the ear of the town and understands what’s needed to make the department successful, and I’m going to feed off those things.”
“I think it’s a great bunch of guys working here right now,” Young said. “I told them the first week, ‘This is our house. This is our family. We need to take care of ourselves and make sure everything is good with us, so we can (communicate) to the public that we’re a good, solid department that’s going to take care of each other.'”
“I consider law enforcement a family and I consider this department a family, and we’re going to work hard and give everything we can for the town of Damariscotta,” Young said.
Young lives in Damariscotta with his family, wife Susan and sons Nolan, Alec and Dylan.
