Knox County call-sharing pact needs work

ROCKLAND – The call-sharing agreement signed last month by Maine State Police and the Knox County Sheriff’s Department needs fine-tuning, Sheriff Daniel Davey said Friday, and the departments need better communication – in-house and with the public – regarding the pact.

Earlier this week, a few glitches in the plan were brought to the attention of Davey and state police Lt. Jeffrey Trafton, commander of the Troop D barracks in Thomaston. Those problems are now being addressed, Davey said.

After hearing concerns from Hope Town Administrator Robert Peabody and St. George Town Manager John Falla, the law enforcement officials have agreed to meet with the municipal heads, starting next week.

Davey and Trafton will meet with Peabody at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday at the town office. No meeting had yet been scheduled with St. George selectmen.

The call-sharing pact, signed July 25 by Davey and Trafton, establishes two zones, a northern and a southern zone. For a two-week period, state police will cover the northern area, while sheriff’s deputies patrol the southern zone; then they switch zones for the next two-week stretch.

The plan was developed as a way to handle an increasing number of calls in the county, Davey said Friday. He did not have specific numbers, but is gathering those data.

According to Davey, Trafton told him that the number of calls to which state police were responding after the pact was signed dramatically increased. Trafton was unavailable Friday for comment.

The sheriff and lieutenant endorsed the agreement at a press conference, but did not officially notify each town.

“Probably, that’s where we failed,” Davey said. “That’s where we missed the mark.”

Both Peabody and Falla voiced concerns about receiving no notification regarding the change in police coverage.

“My looming problem is: I didn’t know about it,” Peabody said Friday, adding that to ensure the safety and well-being of residents, it would have been appropriate to notify town officials, “even if it’s a good thing.”

In separate incidents recently, Hope and St. George officials made calls to Knox Regional Communications Center and the caller was told to hang up and call state police because they were covering that area that day.

“That’s not supposed to happen,” Davey said.

Peabody also has questions about response time and how the county taxpayer is benefiting by having state police cover half of the county.

“Are we paying twice” for the same service? he said.

“Actually, I think we’re getting better coverage by reducing the coverage area,” Davey said.

A dramatic increase in drug cases in Knox County also prompted finding alternative coverage. The call-sharing agreement has allowed the sheriff to pull three deputies off patrols to focus solely on drug investigations.

The sheriff acknowledged the need to fine-tune the agreement, pointing to better communications with the public, dispatchers and officers. One adjustment needed is to have state police and sheriff’s officers communicating with one another on particular cases, so both agencies know what the other one is doing, Davey said.

Peabody called the call-sharing agreement “vague at best,” and stressed that he is not complaining.

“It’s just [a] concern,” he said. “We need to be in the loop, not outside of the loop.”