AUBURN – Three police officers have announced plans to quit the force and a fourth has retired, leaving an already diminished force even slimmer.

Officers Matthew Prince, Jason Adickes and Andreas Schenk have informed their superiors that they will resign from the force by the end of the month. Normand Letourneau, a 14-year veteran of the department, retired two weeks ago.

Lingering hostilities and tensions between the police force and the city have been cited as reasons.

It has been about a year since the entire police force came under investigation after the arrest of the mayor on drunk driving charges. Two officers now leaving the force – Prince and Letourneau – were directly involved in the arrest of Mayor Normand Guay.

The mayor was cleared of the charges but the entire police force came under investigation. A report released after months of interviews exonerated Prince, the officer who arrested Guay after stopping his car. The same report examined the actions of Letourneau, who was off-duty but in the area of the city building the night the mayor was arrested.

Union President Chad Syphers said the officers who are resigning were not happy.

“In general, they didn’t like being here,” Syphers said. “Two of them are staying in law enforcement, so I think that says something about this department and not about being a police officer.”

Prince, an Auburn police officer since 1999, is heading to Virginia with his wife and kids, and Schenk is taking a position with the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department. Adickes, a two-year veteran, will be teaching in Windham. Letourneau has been retired for two weeks.

Police Chief Richard Small said he hoped to have two new officers hired within the next few weeks and two more later this year. In the meantime, he has responded by moving shifts to make sure there are enough officers on duty to cover busy times.

“We have other pressures right now as well,” Small said. “I have some officers out on injuries and others that are on vacation. So there are many reasons we are short right now.”

On Thursday night, police were called to a Forest Avenue home for what was reported as a home invasion with at least one person already hurt.

One officer arrived within minutes. But only two other officers were on duty at the time and each was miles from the scene. At least 10 minutes passed before backup arrived on Forest Avenue and then it was only one officer. At full staff, a police department can usually get backup to a scene within a couple minutes or less.

Small said Auburn officers can call on the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Department or Lewiston police to back them up, although officers from those departments are not always available to help out with calls. Administrators are considering other options to fill in the gaps while the force remains short staffed.

Two Auburn police officers assigned to schools are being returned to city patrol.

“I can reassign some detectives, as well, if we need them,” Small said. “But we may be able to fill two of those positions within the next several weeks, and we’ll have to wait and see how that works out.”