Crime on the rise in US town that decided to disband police force

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http://www.policeone.com/patrol-issues/articles/5957727-Crime-on-rise-after-Maine-town-loses-police-resident-says/

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In the 10 weeks the Washington County coastal community of Lubec in Maine has gone without daily police patrols, there's been something of a low-key crime spree.

The situation has deteriorated to the point where he claims that a pot of lobsters recently was stolen from the enclosed back porch of a Lubec residence while a woman who lives there was home.

With a population of 1,300, Lubec has no police department. For the past eight years, day-to-day law enforcement needs have been met under a contract with the Washington County Sheriff's Department. That $181,358 annual contract provided Lubec with an 86-hours-a-week, two-officer patrol system at a cost of $497 a day.

The town opted not to approve a new $199,000 annual contract proposed by Washington County Sheriff Donnie Smith. Without the contract coverage, response to crime in Lubec is provided on an as-needed, emergency basis by the Maine State Police and by the Sheriff's Department.

Lubec resident Mike Pivirotto is a proponent of Lubec creating its own two-person police force, using the funds once allocated to the contract with the Washington County Sheriff's Department to hire and equip the two officers. He wants to set a goal of lowering Lubec's crime rate.

"We need a goal, and we need to work together with the police department we would create," he said Wednesday. "And we need professionals. Let's look across the country and find a police chief and let's hire an assistant chief. Two guys would be able to cover the 86 hours we were getting under the contract."

"When we borrow sheriffs from the county, you get officers that are not living here and don't work here every day. I want officers living here in Lubec as part of the community."