At first blush, word the Damariscotta Police Dept. plans to open a satellite police station in the former home of the late Ed Whitney’s barbershop in the Elm St. Plaza plays like another episode of the “You’ve Got To Be Kidding Me” show.
On one level, Police Chief Steve Drake’s contention that he tried to assign his officers to walk around downtown without success doesn’t pass the straight face test. Police are a quasi-military agency. If the Chief tells you to walk around downtown, then you walk around downtown. It shouldn’t be much of a conversation.
Then too, getting out of the car and into the public is central to the community policing philosophy that Maine law enforcement has largely adopted in recent years.
Drake says, as the officers try to walk around downtown, they field a call and have to run to their cruiser to respond. Again it seems like this shouldn’t be too much of a burden, especially considering the police have a reserved parking spot in the heart of the downtown and it’s possible to mosey from one end of Main Street to the other without breaking a sweat in less than 10 minutes.
However, cynicism is the easy reaction.
Chief Drake can point to statistics showing that the number of calls for service his department is handling has increased steadily every year he has been here, as it did under his predecessor.
Drake can also accurately argue that a call for service anywhere else in town, a simple traffic accident for example, can easily eat up an hour or more of time out of an eight hour shift, that an officer has to spend downtown.
Drake contends that having officers stationed downtown instead of simply passing through during a shift will actually reinforce the community policing philosophy by keeping the officers in the public eye.
The feeling is if Damariscotta police are available to amble around downtown at will, they are equally available for the buttonholing by any citizen who cares to express interest; not to mention, for the many teenagers and young adults who congregate downtown.
Regular interaction can go a long way to changing the perception of police from unemotional uniformed enforcers to the workingmen and women they are.
The bottom line is, during the busiest time of year, the town has the use of the Elm Street Plaza location gratis, courtesy of property owner Robert Clifford.
A couple months of free rent seems like a small price to pay to see how right Drake is, or not. If it works, he’s doing a great job. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t cost the town anymore than it is paying right now.
Let’s see how it goes.
