Sheriff wants automatic weapons for patrol officers

DOVER-FOXCROFT – Piscataquis County Sheriff John Goggin wants to arm his officers with small-caliber semiautomatic assault rifles that match the firepower available and in use by perpetrators.

Goggin said Tuesday he hopes local police will never be faced with a shooting at a school or other mass gathering places, but if they do, he wants his patrol officers prepared. Today, his officers must rely on a shotgun they carry in their cruisers. They also carry handguns, but these are suitable only for close encounters.

“You need a weapon you can zero in on someone,” Goggin told Piscataquis County commissioners Tuesday. He suggested that a small-caliber semiautomatic weapon of some type is needed. “We are seriously thinking about making a transition from the shotgun to something like that.” The assault rifles are expected to cost about $700 each.

Goggin asked for and received permission from commissioners Tuesday to use counter-drug funds to purchase and equip his officers with new weapons. The counter-drug money is generated from the sale of items confiscated during drug busts. Currently, there is in excess of $17,000 in the account, according to Goggin.

About $5,000 more is expected to be added to the account from the sale of 84 firearms. He said the confiscated firearms were recently sold at auction by Sportman’s Alliance of Maine on behalf of the county.

“I expect to see a substantial amount of money from that going into counter-drug,” he said. The firearms were not part of Saturday’s yard sale of confiscated items and county retired vehicles that netted the department about $2,600.

Goggin also discussed the jail’s prisoner telephone account, which has a healthy balance. The county receives a few thousand dollars a year as a commission from collect calls made by inmates. The account totals about $30,000 and Goggin said jail personnel are searching for items that could be purchased to accommodate the inmates.

Past purchases have included recreation equipment.

Goggin had attempted to use $3,000 of the fund toward the purchase of a new jail transport van in 2000, but the plan was not acceptable to state officials. Some members of the budget advisory committee had suggested that the funds be applied to a new control panel at the jail, but that too was unacceptable. Goggin said the law is specific in that the funds cannot be used for items that would normally be addressed in the county budget.

In other business Tuesday, Extension educator Donna Lamb was given approval to allow the 19 participants in her Master Gardener class to spruce up a small swath of land next to the Piscataquis County Extension Office with plants and small shrubs.

Goggin announced that his department will hold a blood drive from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. June 18, in the jail parking lot, and the D.A.R.E. golf tournament will be held June 7 at Piscataquis Country Club in Guilford.