We commend the Damariscotta Board of Selectmen for being serious enough about the idea of doing away with the town’s police department to actually convince the Lincoln County Commissioners and sheriff to get their calculators out and start figuring out how it is going to work.
Doing away with a police department is a big deal. It may be radical, but if it saves money and maintains the safety of the community, it is worth considering and the only way to figure that out is to take a long, hard look at the issue.
We call that due diligence, which is always prudent.
However, before we jump on the let-the-deputies-do-it bandwagon, we would like to see how the money shakes out.
We see the issue being the same for any town considering farming out their law enforcement: Sure you do away with an administrative assistant, phone bills, desk space, and maintenance issues, but you replace those expenses with highly trained professionals who bring their own administration, phones, desks, and maintenance needs.
No matter where they are headquartered, law enforcement professionals require commensurate pay and benefits and equipment and training and all the other things that make a police officer go.
In other words, the costs for Damariscotta’s law enforcement won’t go away with the elimination of the department. The bill just moves over to another pile, in this case, Damariscotta’s county taxes.
Not shown with a simple dollar sign, there is the issue of local control.
Sheriff Brackett is a fine public servant, and he is supported by a staff of highly capable professionals. We have absolute confidence in the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, but Brackett and company are responsible for 19 towns, 15 of which, potentially 16 including Damariscotta, rely exclusively on the sheriff for service and all have the same expectation of priority.
We’ll defer to Damariscotta voters to decide their course. Whatever decision they make will work, it is just a matter of how much they like it.
