CHANGING POLICE WORK

With new equipment and responsibilities, police work has changed a lot in the last six decades. The State Police’s system of barracks and patrols has not. An assessment of the force and where and how it works is now under way and should bring the police up to date.

The aim of the long-overdue review is to “find the best ways to use what we have,” says Col. Craig Poulin, the head of the Maine State Police. He hopes to have a realignment plan developed within two months.

What the police have are seven barracks, a system set up in the 1940s when troopers actually slept in the buildings. The barracks are in Alfred, Gray, Thomaston, Skowhegan, Orono, East Machias and Houlton.

When the system was set up, communications equipment consisted of telephones, paper messages – often filled out in triplicate – and radios. Today, radios remain important, but with troopers able to find and submit information via laptop computers, staffing needs have changed. Rather than returning to a barracks to fill out paperwork, troopers can now spend more time in the field. As a result, the number of support personnel in the barracks could decrease with people reassigned to other tasks. The State Police are also responsible for the state’s crime lab and criminal justice academy.

The review is necessary not only because of the state’s continued budget crunch, but also the increasing difficulty of finding qualified people to join the state police. The department has about 500 employees. It is authorized to have 340 law enforcement personnel. It currently has about 316. One reason for the recruiting difficulties is the absence of young people in Maine. As the oldest state in the country there are simply fewer people of working age, especially those just starting their careers. In addition, fewer people are choosing law enforcement careers nationwide.

Against this backdrop, changing the way the state police system is organized is crucial – to make the best use of resources, both financial and human, and to ensure the public is served.

At the same time, the state police are working more closely with county sheriff departments. Cooperative agreements are in place in 10 counties and Col. Poulin aims to have the entire state covered by the end of the year. For example, the two are working together to coordinate schedules so that they are not duplicating effort. One model is for the sheriff’s department to patrol half a county on one day, while the state police are responsible for the other half.

Doing more with less has become a mantra in Augusta. The State Police

are acting on it.