Southwest Harbor Police Chief Explains Need for 24-Hour Shifts
SOUTHWEST HARBOR—When Lt. Franklin Burke resigned from his position at the Southwest Harbor Police Department and took a position at the Ellsworth Police Department, he sent an email to Town Manager Marilyn Lowell alluding to the difficulties of his work schedule on his health. The Southwest Harbor Select Board accepted that resignation during its Tuesday night meeting with Vice Chair Natasha Johnson thanking Burke for his tenure.
At the time of his departure, the town had reworked its schedule to 24-hour shifts. It had also begun patrolling Tremont, its neighboring community.
“At this point,” Police Chief John Hall told members of the Southwest Harbor Select Board about the officers, “they love that schedule.”
July, Hall said, was used to test the new schedule and occurred after Burke went on medical leave.
“The question is going to come down to next year when we start to review the number of calls that we pursued in Tremont versus what we anticipated,” Hall said when Johnson asked about the increased demands of the department also covering Tremont.
Other increased demands include Officer James Kamorski going to the Maine Criminal Justice Academy next week and the patrol officers will be working four-day and three-day shifts. Hall is covering patrol on some days. The academy runs for 18 weeks. Until others are hired, the department will be down to Hall, Officer Ryan Blakeney, and Officer Brad Russell while Karmorski is in training. Russell is expected to head to the academy in January 2025.
“This is similar to the fire department or EMS,” Hall said. “They contacted the Thomaston Police Department [for advice], which sort of pioneered that within the state for law enforcement.”
In 2022, the Thomaston, Maine police chief proposed 48-hour-on and 96-hours-off to help combat staffing shortages. It became fully staffed in December of that year. This week, a department in Mexico, Maine, will close because of a lack of staff. It hopes to eventually reopen.
The pros and cons of law enforcement working 24-hour shifts have been debated across multiple platforms. Discussions surround disruption of sleep patterns, increased (and decreased) recharge and recuperation times. Department size and busyness are often cited as factors toward that sort of shift schedule’s success or failure.
“It’s working as far as the guys are liking it right now,” Hall told the Select Board of the 7 a.m. to 7 a.m. shifts.
If officers get too tired or backed up on calls, they will call Hall or Blakeney and one of them will come in instead, Hall said. Both men live off the island. The department has had to modify the policy that said the officers can’t sleep while working. Some officers kick back in a chair. Some sleep in a cot in the police department.
How is it going to not lead to burn-out, Select Board member Chapin McFarland asked.
“Burn out is a result of multiple different factors,” Hall said. “Some officers love overtime and work it, work it, work it and do it their entire careers.” Some, he said, hate it. “If you have the opportunity to lay down, take a nap, here in the station,” he tells the officers and they can do that for up to six hours if the calls allow it.
Both Blakeney and Hall are academy graduates and field training officers. The other officers are “green pins” and have been to the two-week academy. That means that they can’t respond to serious personal injury accidents or a high-speed chase. They are allowed to work by themselves. When these types of incidents happen, Blakeney or the chief are available by phone call and can respond from Ellsworth. Other agencies on the island as well as the county, federal, and state departments can provide backup as well.
“Starting this Monday, I will be on call until May,” Hall said. He also discussed recruitment and retention of officers. The Select Board approved a $4 an hour increase to officers’ pay in July.
“This town wants to be the Quietside, and it wants to stay that way,” he said. To attract officers to that kind of quiet department, the town has to pay more, he said. People, he said, want to be able to keep the officers and have those officers develop a sense of community so that they want to stay and belong to the community.
Housing would also help with that, Hall stressed.
A take-home car also might help. Thinking out of the box to retain people is important, he said. Saco, he said, just lost 11 officers to surrounding communities.
“I couldn’t even afford to live here,” he said of Southwest Harbor, “because I couldn’t afford housing.”
The department is currently advertising for two patrol officers. Hall said that responses to the posting have been positive. According to the ad, “Full-time MCJA certified officer starting pay, after 6-month probation, is $34.50/hr. Non-certified applicants looking to begin their career are encouraged to apply.”
CORRECTION: In an earlier version of this article, Chapin McFarland’s name was changed to Chad. We regret this error and apologize.
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