(This is the fifth of a five-article series looking at the five law enforcement agencies within Lincoln County.)
At the top of Damariscotta Police Department’s chain of command is a mix of old and new for the town.
Chief Ron Young started with the department on Sept. 1 after working as police chief in Lincolnville since 2008. Deputy Chief Chad Andrews started with the department in 2002 as a patrol officer, working his way up through sergeant and serving as chief for about 18 months.
Damariscotta is a service center in the county, featuring a number of restaurants and bars, two grocery stores, three lumber yards, a wide variety of shops and other assorted businesses, and hosts the only remaining accredited hospital in Lincoln County.
According to Andrews, the biggest difference between Damariscotta and an area like the Boothbay peninsula where the population really balloons in the summer is how and when the population swells.
In the summer, Damariscotta does see a population influx, though somewhat smaller, but because of the town’s role as a service center and its proximity to Route 1 there is always a constant flow of people throughout the year, he said.
“Here it’s much more year-round; it doesn’t change that much,” Andrews said.
Between shoppers and employees, the town’s population of around 2000 people is probably closer to 8000 during the daytime hours, Andrews said.
Young said he was not aware of how much Damariscotta had to offer when he first applied for the chief’s position, such as food services, banks, and bars that draw people to town.
“It kind of sets me back a little bit thinking about everything, how many people could come into this town,” Young said.
Since many people already come to Damariscotta to do business or shopping, one of Young’s goals is to make the department so proactive and visible that criminal elements go elsewhere.
“We’re kind of making it inconvenient for them to come into this town,” he said.
Crime can be the result of convenience or opportunity, so if people feel they can get away with things in a given town, they will go there, Young said.
The department’s job is to protect Damariscotta, Andrews said. “If that diverts [crime] to another area, it is what it is,” he said.
Part of Damariscotta’s reputation as a service center comes from its hospital, the Lincoln County Healthcare (part of the MaineHealth System) doing business as Miles Memorial Hospital and campus.
Andrews said officers from Damariscotta PD can spend a lot of time over at Miles, particularly sitting with people awaiting temporary mental health help or housing.
“They are in custody and they are not free to leave. There’s no crime there, but it’s set up for their safety,” Young said.
Mental health facilities are doing better in recent years in finding a bed for people who need them, but there was a time when the department was spending “tons” of overtime sitting at the hospital, Andrews said.
“We’ve had as many of three days straight of protective custody,” he said.
When an officer has to sit with someone in protective custody, either the department has no one on the road, an additional officer has to be brought on to cover, or the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office has to cover the town, Andrews said.
“When you’re talking three or four days, it’s nearly impossible to cover by yourself,” he said.
Such duty is typical of a hospital town, and Damariscotta is likely to see an influx due to the closing of St. Andrews Hospital in Boothbay Harbor, Andrews said.
“In this area, in Lincoln County, we’re going to be the go-to emergency room for things like that,” Young said.
Sometimes someone who comes voluntarily to the hospital for mental health assistance will grow impatient with the process, and the police department may be called to assist, he said.
“We surely don’t want them to walk out the door and get hurt or hurt somebody else either,” Young said. “We have a good rapport with the hospital staff and a good relationship with them to work things out.”
In other instances, personnel at the hospital may have a concern for their safety and request an officer come down.
“If it’s not a criminal issue and they request that we be there, that’s when the clock starts for them paying for our services,” Young said. The department tries to solve problems or issues as best as it can, but actual criminal situations are the priority, he said.
The department’s approach to law enforcement has three focuses: communication, information, and visibility.
“We’re trying to get voluntary compliance, we’re trying to get people to obey the speed laws without having to enforce them or having to write a ticket for each one,” Young said.
The department attempts to enforce the law through visibility of officers and the department’s vehicles, presence within the public by “flying the colors,” or turning on the blue lights to pull someone over for a violation even though the driver may not ultimately be issued a ticket, Young said.
“I want people to know we have legs, I want us to be out and about. You’re more approachable that way,” he said.
Approachability is key: because the department cannot be everywhere all the time, it needs the community’s help in sharing information, Young said.
“I want us to be approachable, I want us to be out there in the public, and I want to us to meet and greet people. This weekend [PumpkinFest] was great for that, we met people from all over the place,” he said.
Andrews said the public can be a force multiplier if they communicate with the department, something which can be done anonymously.
“More people out there, more ears, more eyes – we can only do so much,” he said.
The information sharing goes both ways, too, as Young wants the public to be aware of what the police department is up to.
“This is what I think law enforcement in general [has] failed to do, they don’t educate the public,” he said.
Unless the information is about an ongoing investigation or violates someone’s confidentiality, Young said he wants to share.
“If you’ve got a question, ask it,” Young said. Hopefully rumors can be squashed that way, he said.
One challenge Damariscotta Police Department has in common with most other departments are issues with drug abuse, Young said.
“Since the beginning of time people want to get high and kids today are getting involved with this drug scene at an early age when their brain is still growing,” he said.
“The problem is there’s things out there – there’s things you experiment with for the first time …” Young began, “… and it could be the last,” Andrews finished.
The need for drugs is driving other crime within the town.
“We go back to the drugs and part of the drive to get that next high or the next drug,” Young said. “They’re going to do anything they can.”
Damariscotta had a recent burglary at a dentist’s office where drugs were stolen, and within a day or two the doctor’s car was stolen from the same location, Young said.
“We have to be diligent in keeping things secure and keeping the drugs out of these peoples hands,” he said.
Andrews recommended parents take a hard look at their children’s rooms to be sure the kids are not using drugs.
“A lot of parents are aghast when you say ‘look in your kids rooms’ and they say ‘I can’t look at my kids stuff,'” Andrews said. “It’s not that you don’t trust them, it’s just making sure you know what’s going on.”
Parents should be particularly aware of what their kids are doing, who they’re talking to, and what their behaviors on social media are, Young said.
A lack of guidance from and involvement of parents is something Young and Andrews said they have seen as a growing trend.
“Parents aren’t always stepping up to the plate and raising their kids,” which is sometimes caused by people having children at a young age, when they are not necessarily prepared to raise a child, Young said.
Grandparents raising the children may also be out of touch with what problems to look for, Andrews said.
Young, who lived with his grandmother as a teenager, said being raised by a grandparent does not necessarily create an issue as a rule.
“I turned out alright, but in some cases it doesn’t always work out that well,” he said.
Despite discussions in town last year for the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office to take over policing in Damariscotta, Young indicated relationships between his department and the other four law enforcement agencies in the county are strong.
“We’re all in it for the same reason, we’re all in it to help each other, and you can’t do that alone. A department this size – we don’t have the internal abilities to handle everything, which is why we have to communicate,” Young said. “We don’t want to create the wheel here, if someone’s already done it, we want to use that and be better for it.”
That being said, Young said he would like to see the department fill its open full-time patrol officer position to reduce reliance on the sheriff’s office.
“I want to use them as an asset, but I don’t want to rely on them to cover our shifts or our calls,” Young said. “Just by our dedication to our town, we will be able to provide a higher level of service than a larger agency would.”
Along with law enforcement agencies, Young said the department is working with the schools and social service agencies like New Hope For Women. The department is also lucky in the emergency services it works with such as Central Lincoln County Ambulance and the dispatchers at Lincoln County Communications, Andrews said.
“We have some really great professional services that we deal with,” he said.
For those who want to learn more about the Damariscotta Police Department, Young reiterated his open door policy, welcoming people with questions to come in and ask or to schedule a ride along with one of the officers.
“I plan on keeping it as transparent, to a point, as possible, unless it comes down to confidentiality, or personnel issues or investigations,” Young said.
Many communities view law enforcement as a thin blue line that just takes care of each other, Young said.
“We do take care of each other, [but] don’t get me wrong, if any one of us is doing anything wrong, unethical or illegal that could tarnish this department, we’re going to be held accountable for it,” he said.
The department is striving to keep a good relationship with the town manager, the selectmen, and the community as a whole, Young said.
“There’s really not much this department wouldn’t do for the town of Damariscotta or the people in this town,” Young said.
