By Cliff White
Staff Writer
State and local officials in southern Maine have teamed up to form a violent crimes task force to combat the recent increase in the rate of violent crimes across the state.
The police departments of Biddeford, Scarborough, South Portland and Portland, along with the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office are joining forces with the U.S. Marshal’s Service and the U.S. Attorney to improve coordination in the investigation of crimes, officials from the six enforcement offices announced in a press conference on Monday.
“More and more of the criminal acts that we deal with are involved in activities that are multi-jurisdictional, and as such it is important that we engage in sharing and regional efforts toward dealing with the criminal element that transcends any borders that may exist between municipalities and townships and any other borders that are created politically,” Portland Police Chief Timothy Burton said.
Each of the members of the Southern Maine Violent Crimes Task Force will supply an investigator who will work full-time on task-force initiatives.
“We made a decision that a team — a stand-alone team with permanent relationships — was going to give us the best yield possible,” Sheriff Mark Dion of the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office said. “The citizen doesn’t care what uniform responds to these tragic events, what they want to see is results. I think the multi-jurisdictional approach is just that.”
Following the signing of the task force agreement, five investigators — one from each local department — were sworn in as deputy U.S. marshals by U.S. Marshal for the district of Maine, David Viles. This gives them access to Marshal’s Service crime databases and communication with Marshal offices throughout the U.S. and around the globe.
Viles said that the new organization would direct the pooled resources of all six departments, plus the added strength of their coordination with the U.S. Marshal’s Service and the U.S. Attorney, against southern Maine’s worst criminals.
Biddeford’s Chief of Police Roger Beaupre attended the press conference and signed the document of agreement. He said that he thought the initiative was important for Biddeford to participate in, even though it means the lending of a full-time investigator away from local affairs.
“The people who the task force will target hop from place to place,” Beaupre said. “They are transients who go from one community to another. All communities in southern Maine share the same criminals.”
John Clark, Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal for the district of Maine, aided in the formation of the task force. In addition to working in the communities of the six full-time participants, task force services will also be available to smaller forces that don’t have ability to commit necessary resources.
“While Maine’s murder rate is relatively low, murders, attempted murders, robberies and aggravated assault have been on the rise recently in the state,” Clark said. “The task force we are forming will provide resources to help combat these types of crimes that a lot of these local police forces lack.”
Clark said that the task force would not step on the toes of local law enforcement investigations, but rather assist them by adding additional strength to their operations.
“The task force is not intended to replace anything that is existing. It won’t independently investigate crimes of violence, which still will be investigated by the agency or agencies responsible,” Clark said. “Rather, the task force will come in as a force multiplier to help those agencies run down investigative leads whether in Maine or other states. They will be able to take advantage of the nation-wide authority of the U.S. Marshal’s Service, so that, as the case progresses, once a suspect is identified and is believed to have fled the area, they can use federal resources to find the suspect, even if the suspect has fled worldwide. We’re giving investigators another resource to track criminals down and apprehend them.”
The task force will also be utilized for surveillance purposes, said Clark. “A lot of departments resources get stretched pretty thin just investigating crimes. They don’t have the luxury or ability to do surveillance of a location over periods of days or weeks, but the task-force would be able to provide that resource.”
There will be a daily reprioritization of task force activities, Clark said, with enforcement priority, given to those individuals who pose the greatest threat to public safety in the communities. Daily reprioritization is also intended to ensure the participating agencies get the biggest bang for their buck, Clark said.
Though federal funding has been requested from the task force, according to Clark it will not receive any until at least the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. Until then, each agency involved will pay its own way. Clark said the task force welcomes any other agencies, which would like to participate, though without federal funding it is unable to provide them with any sort of compensation for doing so.
“This thing really has a lot of potential to be a big success,” Clark said.