05/24/2026
Very good read for the upcoming elections and voting. Thank you Maine Association of Police !
So Many Questions on Policing in Camden. But are they by purpose or design?
On June 9th you, the residents and taxpayers of the Town of Camden have, in no small way, many important decisions to make for your state, your country and most importantly, your homes.
One question that I have for you, is; Do you wish to be a CEO/owner, or a consumer?
Admittedly, it’s a confusing question. In this case, I am asking you specifically about your feeling as to the investment in the life and property of your neighbors and community, as well as the vital partnership that develops stakeholders in that effort to have local interest and ownership in its success.
I ask because you will be confronted by no less than three separate and confusing questions regarding the delivery of public safety services by your current dedicated police department or contracting with the Knox County Sheriff’s Office to provide law enforcement services to the town on a contingent/contractual basis.
To add to this, your hard work and consideration in navigating these questions literally have no force or effect as they are non-binding, advisory votes. The outcome(s) of which will become your charm or your chain, regardless of your intent and based on the political gamesmanship of something so important to you and your families, yet which you have entrusted to your individual town
It begs the question: When did votes become suggestions, or advisory in nature? It suborns your elected selectpersons' authority to act against your vote.
As a voting taxpayer, you possess an owner interest in the administration of your community. In this respect, your interests in the community’s basic tenets of public safety, life and property. As one imbued with the authority as a “Co-Owner”, aka; voter, you direct your board of directors, in this case, your town selectboard, in the direction of your town (maybe THIS is why we use the term incorporated when talking about the formation of a city or town?).
With this owner interest, you have a say in controlling the scope, breadth and level of desired services you see as necessary to provide these important tenets to the community. It’s the basic underpinnings of the experiment of democracy that we will be celebrating as existing for the last 250 years.
In the case of the Se;lectboard's efforts to surreptitiously and confusingly seek to eliminate this by contracting with an outside entity for the same services, ultimately serves to eliminate your interest and relegate you to being a consumer of services from a provider controlled by a completely independent and self-governing entity such as the County Commissioners of Knox County and their Sheriff’s Department.
It is important to differentiate the shift that takes place when you relinquish your ownership and interest in any enterprise. You now become essentially a customer, with certain contractional/conditional rights (think about every time you sign the terms of service when you update your Apple devices) that although retaining the right to comment, or submit your “Yelp” review, you are otherwise tied to that contract for its duration unless the customer and the new owner agree to make changes during its enforceable period.
You are now involving two boards of directors (selectboard/county commission) their attorneys, and any oversight bodies related to the provision for services to consumers. If you think government moves slow, wait until you interject the morass of local government bodies who now may be averse to each other when some of the fine print of the service agreement has been missed.
The impact is not immediate, but it is palpable and cascading to those who ultimately are the recipients of the service and not those elected that paved the way to it. In this case, the “dog whistle” was the town council passing over their own local existing police administration and going directly to a contractual relationship by engaging the Knox County Sheriff as the “acting chief” of a municipal entity.
We are confident the se;ectboard was advised that it was legal for sure but certainly portends a bias and hostile attitude towards the very people who have taken an oath and committed their law enforcement careers to at least a 20-year enterprise as a police officer for the citizens and businesses of Camden Maine.
I would like to say this is a unique and aberrant matter in the Town of Camden. In point of fact this mirrors the actions of the town selectboard and their attorney that existed in 2007, when they went against the will of the voters and eliminated local dispatching services and entering into a dispatch service contract with Knox County by engaging in what can be characterized as a bait and switch. After the taxpayers spoke clearly in a special election that they wanted to retain local control of dispatch services, they were then asked to vote on a town budget that unbeknownst to many, had eliminated dispatch services from the budget placed before the citizens and well less attended than by those voting in the special election.
This not only destroyed the trust and loyalty of long-term employees who made up the dispatchers invested in their charge in serving the citizens of Camden, it spoke to the lengths that local politics and their enabling elected and legal representatives will engage in to create a desired outcome in their own interests.
I urge you not to forget this. As the saying goes, those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. It has already had an immediate and damaging effect on those individual officers and their families in a time where we are ALL beset with crucial and life altering decisions, both personally and economically in a profession that is already suffering the largest segment of vacant and unfillable positions in the Maine law enforcement segment.
If you were a police officer with a family who has lived through the last six months of this political process, the behavior of its elected town and county officials and the abject uncertainty it has caused, what conversation would you be having around your kitchen table? I certainly could not blame a new officer with little to no seniority or attending the Maine Criminal Justice Academy to take pause and engage in those deliberations and discussions with their families on what, if any, commitment exists between them and those elected to provide for their employment.
What makes this local ballot so insidious? By its nature, it’s designed with multiple and intertwined questions of being a non-binding, advisory ballot item. In essence, your vote has already been relegated to be a perfunctory survey question and not a direction to those entrusted to operate your owner interest in earnest. It is a more nuanced, deliberate and legally advised tactic to employ the same practice that eliminated local dispatch services after being clearly advised by the special vote demanded by the taxpayers.
I applaud the professionalism and dedication of the men and women of the Camden police department, as well as the incredible Espirit de Corps of its remaining administrators. They have without question, in the face of uncertainty, never faltered in their commitment to serving the citizens and businesses of Camden. It is a sad commentary that in a profession in much is asked of both police officers and their families, that they are reduced to a line item in a budget and otherwise expendable. In short: This is not valuing those who place themselves and their families in harm’s way in the service of others.
This is a critical time in our history in which difficult decisions will have to be made as to what entities or services such as public works and public safety provide in the priority hierarchy of what matters most to the taxpayers of our cities and towns.
You, as a taxpayer/owner/CEO of the incorporated venture that is Camden, Maine has a binding and democratic right to direct and protect you and your families’ interests.
There is no substitute to local control and self-determination in these important enterprises, and you cede that in becoming a consumer public safety service.
I would like to thank not only the men and women of the Camden Police Department, but for the incredible number of citizens, businesses and supporters that have spoken with a large and clear voice in keeping their police department local. Both in their signature petition drive, to their endless public support in all areas and media. It does not go unrecognized, and it gives hope to all those who have committed to a life of service as a first responder in the State of Maine. It sends a clear message that resonates with your town selectboard on June 9th as a directive from their voters/employers.
This election will put these questions before you and I ask that you support the effort to keep ALL police services local. PERIOD. This is a decision that needs to be made directly and succinctly and not allow further political gerrymandering of the direction of the public’s interests in their safety and security. To do so otherwise would bring the doom of Camden’s history with its dispatch betrayal back to roost.
Sincerely,
Paul D Gaspar
Executive Director
Maine Association of Police
