PARIS – Municipal leaders in Norway, Paris and Oxford agreed Wednesday to consider sharing the cost of a state-trained drug agent who would work with the three towns’ police departments.

The informal agreement came as selectmen, town managers and representatives of the police departments of the towns met to talk about ways the three departments can work together to improve service to the public.

All those gathered around the table at the Paris Fire Station agreed that police in the three towns already have a strong history of helping each other.

“I don’t think there’s a day that goes by where we don’t back each other up,” said Oxford Police Chief Ron Kugell. “If we didn’t, each department would have to have more people on the road than we do now.”

Paris Police Chief David Verrier strongly advocated the shared drug agent. The cost of the position, with benefits, would be about $60,000, or $20,000 for each town. The person could either be employed by the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency, with the three towns paying the salary, or could be employed by the three towns under a joint agreement.

Verrier said the drug enforcement agency is downsizing and facing budget cuts, and that its agents are stretched too thin to become involved in smaller cases.

Yet under state law only the agents, and not regular police officers, have authority to fully investigate drug cases by accessing records from doctors’ offices and pharmacies.

Oxford Detective Jon Tibbetts said there is currently a lack of coordination on the huge amount of information about illegal drug use in the three towns. A drug agent would address that, by serving as the coordinator for drug cases.

“This is a perfect example of working together toward a common goal,” said Norway Selectman Robert Walker.

Acting Norway Police Chief Rob Federico said he’d prefer to see the officers on the three police departments receive training from MDEA agents. He said he has received such training, and it has proved valuable to his work in investigating drug cases.

Verrier disagreed, saying each department suffers already from staffing shortages. One officer, trained as a specialized drug agent, “would make a huge difference” in combating a drug problem that is on the rise in the Oxford Hills, he said.

Prescription drug abuse is becoming more prevalent, and cocaine and heroin are also a problem, the policemen agreed. As drug-related activity increases, so do the incidents of burglaries, assaults, thefts and domestic violence, they said.

“A lot of the Lewiston (drug) problems are coming this way,” Verrier said.

Tibbetts said he recently investigated a woman who was getting Oxycodone prescriptions from five different pharmacies in the area. He spent a lot of time on the case, he said.

“The amount of time it takes to investigate a complaint – it would be difficult to pawn that off on a patrol guy,” Tibbetts said.

Kugell said the agreement that would share the agent could be worded in such a way to address Federico’s concerns about training.

Selectmen agreed that there shouldn’t be too much concern over how much time the agent spends working in any one town, since many drug cases spill over into several towns.

If voters agree to fund the position, “The man is not working in your town or our town, he is working in our community,” said Paris Selectman Bruce Hanson.