ROCKPORT – Combining police services in Camden and Rockport would not save any money but could improve the quality of services offered by the two departments, according to a feasibility study presented at a joint meeting of the Camden and Rockport select boards.

The study was an assessment of community interest in exploring greater cooperation of police services and a detailed look at the feasibility.

“Attempting to achieve significant financial savings by combining of the Camden and Rockport police departments and still maintaining the level and quality of police services, as defined by the various parties within the two communities, would be very challenging,” the report stated.

Prepared by consultant Paul Plaisted of Justice Planning and Management Associates of Augusta, the study said if conservation of financial resources were the primary issue, then the individual towns might be better served to address the matter separately.

At the same time, most people attending a November 2007 community workshop, which represented the first phase of the two-phase study, also rated preserving and improving the quality of services among their top priorities.

“The purpose of the meeting Thursday was to allow the consultant to present his final report,” said Tom Ford, director of planning and community development in Rockport. “There was no intention to take a vote.”

Officials said it would be better to wait until after the June election, when there would be changes on the boards, before considering the consolidation, Ford and Plaisted said.

Rockport and Camden began exploring merging police departments in 1997.

In 2006, the two towns agreed to pursue a state grant to study the feasibility and potential savings of joining the police departments. The study came as a result of a $17,000 state grant from the Department of Administrative and Financial Services that was part of Gov. John Baldacci’s initiative through LD 1 to encourage municipal and educational consolidation.

The basis for a cooperative effort would be the use of an interlocal agreement, which could be acted upon by both towns, the study said.

The Camden Police Department appeared to be the most viable vehicle for the combined departments, the report said.

“There is an obvious issue of local identity,” Plaisted said of putting both departments under Camden. “I don’t think that’s a primary issue, but obviously that’s one of the issues to be considered.”

He said there was no discussion over where the police cruisers would be parked for purposes of patrols.

“The preliminary discussion was that police protection would be conducted out of the Camden police facility,” he said. “I don’t think there was any thought given to housing cruisers in Rockport for the sake of having them in Rockport.”

He said there would be “patrols 24 hours a day, seven days a week, by up to three cruisers at any given time” in Rockport. “There would be cruisers in the community,” he said.

Plaisted pointed out that the regional high and elementary schools for the two towns are in Rockport, thus creating another reason for patrols.

The cost of wages and benefits represents about 85 percent of the police services budgets of Camden and Rockport. Achieving a greater effect means reorganizing and redirecting the work force in innovative ways, said the study.

There were no precedents for cooperative ventures in multiple police collective bargaining units in Maine, Plaisted said, but the merger of the Augusta water and sanitary districts might be a model. The parties sought guidance from the Maine Labor Relations Board on how to proceed, he said.

gchappell@bangordailynews.net

236-4598