MACHIAS – At both the December and January selectmen’s meetings, board members have questioned among themselves why town police cruisers have been seen out of town.

Police Chief Grady Dwelley said Friday he was surprised at the concern since no one, including any selectman, has asked him.

Dwelley explained that it is provincial to think that all town business can be conducted by coming to a screeching halt at the town line.

“We cannot isolate ourselves and provide adequate services for our residents,” he said.

“Every time anyone sees that cruiser going anywhere, either in town or out, they should know that it is absolutely on town business,” he said.

He said that a selectman’s complaint that a cruiser was at Rocky Lake in East Machias “actually happened more than two years ago,” and another complaint that the cruiser was in Marshfield last week was unfounded.

“Those officers were coming back from Augusta from an autopsy,” Dwelley said.

Recently, he said, a Machias home was burglarized and a large number of expensive items stolen.

“We determined that the evidence was located in Jonesboro,” he said. “In order to make that arrest and get that Machias person’s property back, we had to strike while the iron was hot,” he said. “We got a search warrant, arrested the man and he went to jail.”

Dwelley said his officers must cross town lines in order to do their jobs.

“This is no longer Mayberry RFD,” he said. “I envy anyone who thinks or believes we should be policing like we did in the 1950s or 1960s.”

He said that if a summons or subpoena is to be served in a timely fashion, his officers must handle it.

Dwelley said that a previous police policy, which was in effect until November 2003, forbid officers from crossing town lines – for any reason, even a life-threatening situation.

“We couldn’t go across the line if we were chasing a crook,” he said. “We couldn’t even go over the line to safely turn around.

“For modern times, that had to change,” said the chief. “It had to change to fulfill our mission of life safety.”