Police Det. Jason Benefield has been coming from Texas to visit his wife’s family in Hancock, every summer for years.
The Benefield family moved to Maine Jan. 18, so he could begin the training needed to qualify him for his new job as detective in the Waldoboro Police Department.
The offer of employment was contingent on approval from the Maine Criminal Justice Academy and the results of a polygraph test and psychological evaluation. Waldoboro Police Chief Bill Labombarde said those are standard requirements for any new hire in the department.
Since arriving in Maine, Benefield has been getting to know the officers in the department and members of the district attorney’s office. He has also been meeting Waldoboro’s citizens.
“I’m in Waldoboro to be part of the community,” he said. “I’m here to work for the town and its citizens.”
Benefield has been a police officer for seven years, five of those in investigations. He began his law enforcement career at age 33 after serving as a 9-1-1 dispatcher in Brownwood, Texas.
He was later hired as a patrol deputy and detective for the 25-member Brown County Sheriff’s Department in Brownwood, Texas. Benefield said investigative work is a natural direction for a police officer to take in his career.
Waldoboro has nine full-time police officers, including Benefield and Labombarde.
Labombarde said Jan. 23 that Benefield has extensive expertise in computer forensics and identity fraud investigation and narcotics.
While most of the complaints the department receives involve assisting citizens who are in motor vehicle collisions, accidentally locked out of their homes or involved in civil disputes with neighbors, Labombarde said last August, Waldoboro had a large number of domestic disputes that were related to substance abuse issues.
He said he’s seeing an increasing number of cases involving the abuse of prescription medications and the chemical combination often referred to as bath salts.
Benefield said education and treatment are important tools in combating drug abuse. He said he would work with those who have a better understanding of the specifics of Midcoast Maine’s problems in that area.
In Texas, he said, the majority of drug cases he worked on involved methamphetamine coming over the border from Mexico to local distributors.
“There will be a learning curve,” he said. “The prescription drug problem is a little bit different.”
“He has very solid investigative skills in all the other areas that are required as well,” Labombarde said.
The detective will also investigate fatal motor-vehicle accidents, since liability in such an event could lead to a charge of vehicular manslaughter.
The interview process for Benefield was unusual, he said. Because of the distance, interviews were conducted online, using Skype. The Waldoboro Police Department computer did not have a webcam.
“We had the advantage, because we could see him,” Labombarde said.
Benedict was interviewed by members of the Waldoboro Police Department and Maine Drug Enforcement Agency as well as Assistant District Attorney Andrew Wright and Lt. Mike Murphy of the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office.
Benefield is a veteran of nine years service in the Air Force and is married with two small children.
Benefield said Feb. 6 the family is in the process of finding a home in Waldoboro, where his 8-year-old son attends the Miller School.
Benefield also has a 6-year-old son who will start school next year, two adult daughters in Texas and an adult son currently stationed in San Diego serves in the Navy.
“They like the weather,” he said. “They’re impressed with the snow.”
