 Police Update | |
Three county officers will receive awards
By M. Dirk Langeveld , Staff Writer May 15, 2008 AUGUSTA - Three members of the Oxford County Sheriff's Office will receive awards from the Maine State Police on Friday for their role in the capture of a convicted felon in January. Deputy William "Bill" Nelson will receive the Meritorious Service Award, while Cpl. Justin Brown and Deputy Michael Halacy will each receive a Special Award of Commendation. The ceremony will take place at 1:30 p.m. at the Maine Department of Public Safety offices. The two agencies, along with the Paris and Rumford police departments, assisted with the search for 27-year-old Derrick Morrison after he led police on a high speed chase in a van and then a foot chase through deep snow in Woodstock. Morrison was believed to be armed at the time, although no weapon was found on him. Morrison was sentenced to serve 10 years in prison in February after pleading guilty to escape and drug charges and admitting a probation violation from an aggravated assault conviction. According to an e-mail from Sheriff Wayne Gallant, the officers were nominated by Sgt. Don Shead Jr. of the Maine State Police, who also took part in the manhunt. Shead will also be presented with a Meritorious Service Award. Read 'We're working as a unit' By M. Dirk Langeveld , Staff Writer May 14, 2008 PARIS - State and county police signed a one-year agreement Tuesday to share coverage of Oxford County in a more efficient way. The county will be divided into three zones, each with a deputy and a trooper providing coverage. One of the agencies will provide primary coverage, while the other will serve as backup and conduct follow-up investigations, paperwork and other tasks. The primary agency will change from week to week. "We're working as a unit instead of two separate entities trying to do the same thing," Oxford County Chief Deputy Dane Tripp said. Under the old system, established in 1998, the county was divided into four zones, with deputies and troopers each covering two zones and rotating zones every month. Trooper Ron Turnick said this led to difficulties in following up on incidents that occurred at the end of the month, because officers would be transferred to different zones. Under the new system, troopers and deputies are not rotated out of an assigned zone. Trooper Kyle Tilsley said the new model allowed him to investigate a series of burglaries handled by the Sheriff's Office during his weeks as a backup officer. "I don't think anyone cares whose name is at the bottom of the page," Tilsley said. Sheriff Wayne Gallant said the advantages of the agreement include greater visibility of law enforcement and better enforcement. The agreement also aims to prevent officers from responding to calls that are already cleared, and to allow officers to call in and take over a response if they are closer to the incident than the other officer. Jim Miclon, director of the Oxford County Regional Communications Center, said the agreement has streamlined the serving of papers such as subpoenas and summonses by reducing the distance officers have to travel. Read Anonymous donor funds iris scan ID By Terry Karkos , Staff Writer Monday, May 12, 2008 RUMFORD - Thanks to an anonymous donor, police in Franklin and Oxford counties will soon get a high-tech tool that will help find missing or abducted children and adults afflicted with Alzheimer's or dementia. Someone donated 12 iris-scanning devices to the Penobscot County Sheriff's Department in Bangor, the first law enforcement agency to buy the tool last year through a $25,000 grant from the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation, according to Oxford County Sheriff Wayne Gallant. Gallant, in turn, then wrote a grant to obtain one of the donated $12,000 devices through a collaborative effort with the Franklin County Sheriff's Office, Maine State Police, and police departments in Franklin and Oxford counties. "We are pretty pleased that we're getting awarded it and the fact that police agencies across the state are all buying into it; that speaks highly of it," Gallant said by phone Friday afternoon in Paris. He said the device takes pictures of children's and adults' irises - the colored part of the eye unique to a person which doesn't change with age - and stores them in a national database. Unlike searching a database of fingerprints, which can take hours or days, iris-scan searches take seconds. "For instance, if we use this during a child identification clinic and, God forbid, there is a child abduction later, and the child is found, within seconds we'll get an identification. With fingerprinting, a fingerprint has 40 something identifiable characters, but the iris has more than a couple hundred. So, it's a good means of identification and a great tool to have for missing persons and people we find who are unable to tell us who they are," Gallant said. On May 21, he will send two deputies to the Penobscot County Sheriff's Department to pick up the tool and get trained in its use. The deputies will be accompanied by two Franklin County deputies, a trooper, and one officer each from the Farmington and Rumford police departments, who will also be trained. Like Gallant, Rumford police Chief Stacy Carter said Tuesday that his department is looking forward to using the device in conjunction with fingerprinting at the child identification clinics his officers conduct. "Penobscot County Sheriff Glenn Ross gave us a demonstration of it at this winter's Maine Chiefs of Police conference, and it was pretty impressive. Technology like this that's available today for law enforcement is pretty exciting," Gallant said. The other 11 donated iris-scanning tools will be dispersed to law enforcement agencies across Maine, he added. Read Sheriff praises new jail strategy By M. Dirk Langeveld , Staff Writer April 24, 2008 GREENWOOD - Speaking before town officials Wednesday, Sheriff Wayne Gallant of the Oxford County Sheriff's Office said a new jail plan will help reduce taxes in the county. "This plan, all in all, has got some tax benefits for the people in Oxford County," Gallant said at the monthly Oxford County Municipal Officers meeting. "It shows that people with different opinions and ideas can sit down and come up with a plan that benefits everyone." Gallant had been opposed to jail consolidation plans proposed by Gov. John Baldacci, first put forth in August 2007, which initially included the Oxford County Jail as one of four jails to be closed. The plan was later revised to make the jail into a 72-hour holding facility. "It was going to take our tax money and supplement the state budget," Gallant said. Under a new plan put forth by local and county officials, a Board of Corrections will oversee the county jails and work to manage costs. Gallant said the plan also caps jail spending at the 2008 level, which was $1.3 million for Oxford County. He estimated that the initial savings to the county will be in the upper $70,000 range and increase over time. Gallant said the new system will also create a standard fee for boarding inmates at other jails, create new wards to treat inmates with mental disabilities, and seek to reduce the cost of transporting inmates. Bethel Town Manager Scott Cole asked Gallant if the Sheriff's Office would be willing to support a consolidation of law enforcement services in the county. Cole said an unfair burden exists on towns that have their own police departments. "They pick up the sheriff's tab, but they pick up their own tab as well," Cole said. Gallant said he would support discussions on the issue similar to those that were held regarding the jail consolidation. He said call sharing between the Sheriff's Office and Maine State Police has lead to greater efficiencies in police coverage in the county. "You'll always see a trooper out there with a deputy now responding to calls," Gallant said. Read | |