Brewer officer drives backup cruiser into pole

BREWER – The Police Department will have to do without a backup cruiser for at least a few months after an officer driving the vehicle struck a utility pole last week and the cruiser was demolished.

The spare cruiser was used as a replacement when another cruiser was out of service or to put more officers on the road. Because of the May 25 accident, during which the cruiser hit a utility pole in a parking lot, the department will make do without it until a replacement is found, perhaps by early fall, Brewer Police Chief Dan Green said.

“We can get by,” Green said Thursday.

The accident occurred shortly before midnight as Officer Ed Willey was doing a property check on the Penobscot Conservation Association on North Main Street.

It was dark and raining, and Willey hit a utility pole that is partially in the parking lot. The cruiser, valued at $5,000, was a total loss. The accident damaged the pole but didn’t break it. Power was knocked out in the vicinity, Green said.

Willey was the sole occupant in the cruiser and was not hurt.

The department has three regular cruisers and had two spares, although one was being used for the K-9 officer and dog. The loss of a backup cruiser, an older model with higher mileage, will mean an increased reliance on the existing vehicles, Green said, but it won’t interfere with the department’s ability to police the city.

“It’s not going to affect our ability to patrol or cover the city whatsoever,” Green said.

Green said the accident was “driver error” on the part of Willey and that actions were taken in light of the incident.

The chief said, however, that said such actions were an internal matter.

The city usually considers purchasing new cruisers about this time of year, and Green said a new cruiser, should it be purchased, could arrive in September or October.