LIVERMORE FALLS – Brock Caton grew up with law enforcers and became comfortable around police officers. He was sworn in as a Livermore Falls Police Department full-time patrolman Monday.

“I grew up admiring police officers and knew from an early age that’s what I wanted to do,” said Caton, 23, of Strong. “As far as I remember, that’s all I ever wanted to do was be a police officer.”

He said his parents, Farmington Police Chief Richard Caton III and Melinda Caton, the Franklin County sheriff’s dispatcher training supervisor, were the mentors and idols to him and his twin brother, Richard Caton IVs.

Brock’s twin is a police officer in Jay.

Growing up, the boys went on patrol with their father and job-shadowed him.

Brock is a 1999 graduate of Mount Abram High School and a 2003 graduate of the University of Maine at Presque Isle with a degree in criminal justice.

He was recently promoted to sergeant in the Maine Army National Guard’s mountain infantry unit in Brewer. The unit, B Company of the 3-172nd Infantry, trains in mountaineering techniques and assaults in a mountainous environment.

One of the reasons Brock likes law enforcement is the chance to work with people.

“I like the fact you to meet a lot of new people and you deal with the public a lot,” he said. “You get to learn a lot about yourself. like how you handle negative situations. You get to learn about other people’s characters by being able to talk with them. You have an opportunity to help people. There is a misconception that all police officers do is arrest people, when in fact the main purpose of law enforcement is to protect and serve. That’s what I hope to do.”

Brock has been a reserve officer since fall 2003, and he works part-time at the University of Maine Public Safety Office. At college, he did an internship with Presque Isle police. He works out six days a week in his spare time.

He became full-time in Livermore Falls for the second time Monday. He had been hired to fill the 6 p.m.-to-2 a.m. shift after Officer Bruce Benson resigned to go to Iraq. But the position was eliminated when selectmen cut the so-called overlap shift.

Brock, who replaces Rod Small, who took a job in Jay, is scheduled to attend the 18-week Criminal Justice Academy in January.

“I see myself doing this for 25, 30 years,” he said

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