Full-time Officer Cole Pelletier is attending police academy training until the end of July. Currently, the department has three full-time officers, including Pelletier, as well as several reserve officers who can only work up to 1,040 hours each per year. When running at capacity, the Fort Kent department employs four full-time officers and a full-time chief of police. The Fort Kent Police Department averages 5,000 calls a year in a town that has a little more than 4,000 people, Pelletier said.
“When Van Buren closed the doors we had 110 calls in that one month just to our Sheriff’s Office.” “If the town was to dry up and not have a police department, all those calls would come to us or the State Police,” Gillen said. If the Fort Kent Police Department were to shut its doors, the impact would be felt countywide, the sheriff said. Pelletier, who has served as chief for the past seven years, and had previously retired after 24 years with Maine State Police, said he may bring an end to his lengthy law enforcement career if qualified immunity is revoked. Jeffrey Evangelos, I-Friendship, sponsored the bill.īut a federal bill, The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act 2020, is still under consideration and includes a provision to end qualified immunity.Ī Fort Kent Police Department cruiser is seen in this BDN file photo.
Kent police blotter full#
LD 214, which would have ended qualified immunity in Maine, recently was moved to the full Legislature with an ought-not-to-pass recommendation after a 9-1 vote in committee. A jury found Chauvin guilty of murder, and Floyd’s death has resulted in calls for police reform throughout the country.Īmong police reform initiatives are bills that would eliminate qualified immunity for officers, which protects them from personal liability, or civil lawsuits, for actions taken while on duty, as long as no constitutional rights were violated and no criminal act was committed. Law enforcement at all levels has come under fire in the United States in recent years, and especially since the May 2020 murder of George Floyd.įloyd, a Black man accused of passing a counterfeit $20 bill at a convenience store, died after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for more than 9 minutes, despite Floyd’s fervent pleas for help. The decline in applicants to police departments is a problem throughout the country due to low pay and lack of benefits for a job that the public often views negatively. “We’re in a major dilemma here to be able to figure out what we’re going to do with half the manpower.” “We’re facing shutting down a police department,” Fort Kent Police Chief Tom Pelletier said.
Madawaska is the other town that still has a department in the Valley.
Van Buren closed its department last December due to a lack of officers. Several police departments across Aroostook County are down officers, and Fort Kent is one of only two remaining departments in the St. FORT KENT, Maine - An inability to attract officers to fill vacancies could result in the closure of the Fort Kent police department.įort Kent isn’t alone.
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