The past year or so has been a time of strife concerning the future law enforcement within Lincoln County. The Damariscotta Police Department faced potential disbandment, two Wiscasset officers took a significant pay cut and the department barely retained 24/7 coverage, and two Waldoboro Police officers recently resigned over budget and job uncertainty.
Discussions related to all three departments have brought up Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office to fill in gaps, and in the case of Damariscotta, there were discussions about contracting the LCSO to replace the police department entirely.
To help inform the public about the five law enforcement agencies in the county, Lincoln County Law Enforcement is planned as a five article series featuring information about the unique challenges facing each agency and what efforts the public’s tax dollars support.
Bill Labombarde, the police chief in Waldoboro, first came to the department in the fall of 2007. Previously, Labombarde served as the police chief in Lincolnville, as a detective in Wells, and as a patrol officer in North Berwick.
“My best description of Waldoboro is it’s a blue-collar working community, a fishing town, we don’t have any tourists or big business. Our biggest industry is the clam flats along the river,” he said.
Though not everyone works in fishing or clamming, prices for fish and shellfish are down while prices for goods are going up, and Waldoboro has a high poverty rate, he said.
Some of the problems Waldoboro faces are the same in any other town, such as burglaries and thefts, criminal mischief, and illicit drugs, Labombarde said.
“I think we have a high rate of domestic violence as well; higher than other places I’ve worked,” he said.
Because Waldoboro does not have the same level of summer swelling in tourist-based communities like Wells or Boothbay Harbor, Waldoboro’s law enforcement activity stays relatively steady throughout the year, and often deals with repeat offenders, Labombarde said.
“We’re doing a lot of repeat business with a lot of the same customers,” he said.
Policing in Waldoboro involves aspects of both a “town police department” and rural patrol because of the size of the town, Labombarde said.
According to http://www.waldoboromaine.org, Waldoboro is approximately 80 square miles, with over 103 miles of roads.
“We’re spread out, a lot of our stuff is almost like rural patrol; we’re 20 miles tip to tip,” Labombarde said. Additionally, south of Old Route 1 there are no bridges from the Bremen side of the river to Friendship side, and officers have to travel up and around, he said.
“It’s a lot of area to cover,” he said.
In seeking that balance, Labombarde said the department is proactive with things like self-initiated traffic stops and working with kids in schools.
The school resource officer, Tom Hoepner, does classes with students, gives presentations, and performs truancy enforcement for RSU 40, which is reimbursed by the district, while Labombarde does DARE at Miller School, Labombarde said.
“I think we’ve learned over the years how to do more with less and we’re good at what we do. We don’t waste a lot of resources doing it,” Labombarde said of the department as a whole.
Until recently, the Waldoboro Police Department has had eight full-time officers, including Labombarde, but the school resource officer works mainly at the Medomak Valley High School and Medomak Middle School, filling in to reduce overtime during the summer months, Labombarde said.
The department operates on a 10 hour shift schedule, covering a day shift and an overlapping evening and night shift. Typically two officers are working during the night hours, and a single patrol officer backed up by either Labombarde or the detective during the day.
“Most of our violent crimes occur in the evening hours when people are home from work. For that you’d want two officers responding to a call,” Labombarde said.
Having two officers on during a shift helps improve safety both for the public and the officers, due to the physical size area, which is covered by the department and the unpredictability of calls, Labombarde said.
“Typically, and because of the nature of the calls that we get, the more violent crimes that we get – domestics, fights, any disturbance of that nature – you roll two officers to that,” he said.
Having a second officer at the scene can help avoid having either the officers or others hurt in a given situation, and “time is of the essence in regards to public safety and officer safety,” Labombarde said.
Due to the nature of some calls, responding can sometimes take an on-duty officer out of town for a length of time, Labombarde said. Having to sit with someone in protective custody at a hospital for a crisis evaluation or for health reasons will take an officer out of town while the other officer stays to patrol.
The department is currently down two officers due to the recent resignations, and still has no firm budget after a proposed $60,000 cut failed to pass at special town meeting on Sept. 10.
Following two referendum votes where the budget failed, Labombarde said he hopes the selectmen will opt for an open town meeting the next time around.
“Having an open town meeting would be perfect, then we can deal with it and move forward,” Labombarde said.
In the meantime, Labombarde said he has been operating under the assumption the cuts are in place, which has affected the department’s ability to provide 24 hour a day coverage.
In regard to the community, Labombarde said he feels the Waldoboro Police Department has a good rapport with the people of Waldoboro and much, if any, discontent with the department often stems from people who do not like police in general.
“We’re never going to make everybody happy, and there’s a population of people in Waldoboro that no matter what we do they’re not going to like the police because we’re the police,” he said.
Some of that attitude relates to feuds between certain families within the town; feuds which go back generations and are not likely to come and go, Labombarde said.
“About the only thing they’ll agree on is they hate the police, and I can’t change that, that’s generational,” he said.
Meanwhile, both Labombarde himself and the department in general has an open door policy for people to stop in, Labombarde said. On any given day, six or seven people will stop in to discuss an issue, ask advice, or alert the department to something going on in town, he said.
“There’s all kinds of reasons people come in here, but that door’s open anybody who wants to come talk to us is welcome,” he said.
