BANGOR – With a handshake and the signing of documents on Monday, officials from the state police and the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department cemented a formal agreement aimed at improving law enforcement coverage in the area.

“I think this is a great example of what is right about law enforcement in Maine,” Maine State Police Col. Craig Poulin said about the newly penned Resource Coordination Agreement.

Intended to better strengthen the ties between the two agencies, which handled more than 24,000 calls last year, the agreement was signed at a local restaurant where about a dozen law enforcement officers, some of whom hadn’t met each other before, sat down together and shared a meal.

Under the agreement, work shifts from each agency would be mirrored, with one crew from the state police working the same hours as one from the Sheriff’s Department. Sharing shifts should make it easier for deputies and troopers to exchange information and coordinate investigations, organizers said. In the past, a deputy or trooper may have had to wait hours or days before reaching the investigator they needed, they have said.

Penobscot County Sheriff Glenn Ross said there’s no way to assess how much is being saved, but without such an agreement in place, he would need more deputies on patrol.

Both agencies have been working together in a call-sharing agreement since 1997, but this agreement includes new developments including having a detective assigned to every agency’s shift to handle longer-term investigations, freeing deputies and troopers to cover other day-to-day crimes and incidents.

The agreement splits the county in two, with each agency covering half on any given night, although Ross said that either can easily fill in to cover the other’s territory when needed, such as when one agency is tied up with an incident or out on training.

Ross said that he and Poulin may be signing the documents, but what it really came down to was the troopers and deputies sitting at the table.

“Ours is just a signature,” Ross said. “It’s the men sitting at the table that make this work. They do it on a daily basis, from the troop commanders to the investigators in the field.”