By Jodi Hausen,Staff Writer

WILTON – Former Police Chief James Parker admitted last week to shortcomings in his leadership of the police department, but he said that lack of financial and moral support from the town contributed to many of the problems.

The Wilton Police Department was sharply criticized in an independent investigation in January that found Parker’s department had serious unresolved morale problems, inadequate record-keeping and an unhealthy work place.

The most serious finding by the Maine Chiefs of Police Association was the community’s apparent lack of trust in its police force.

Parker had not responded to numerous phone messages from the Sun Journal over the past three weeks, but agreed to an interview after a reporter went to his home.

Parker said town managers and selectmen over the years would not support him financially when he asked for more money for training and for secretarial help to keep up with the paperwork.

The department didn’t even have a janitor, forcing the police officers to clean the station each Wednesday.

“My record-keeping was not the greatest,” Parker admitted, adding he never had appropriate administrative training. He joined the department in 1972 and was a member of the third class of police to graduate from the state’s Criminal Justice Academy in 1973.

Parker also admitted to neglecting to update the department’s policy handbook.

“There’s no excuse,” he said haltingly, adding that he had thought about writing updates but never got around to it.

“I just did my job as best I knew how to do it,” Parker said Tuesday.

Public relations

Although residents interviewed for the report believed Wilton was a safe place to live, many felt police didn’t respond quickly enough to calls for help.

One officer in particular, whom the report did not identify, created even more trouble for Parker because of his “tactless” interaction with the public, especially during domestic violence calls.

Parker admitted that he did not discipline the officer in writing, but said he kept a close eye on him. In fact, he made a point of sitting next to the officer during domestic violence training workshops.

He said the discipline process outlined in the officer’s union contract required complaints to be filed in writing and be notarized.

Since many victims did not want to file written complaints against specific officers, Parker’s ability to address the problems was hindered, he said.

However, Parker said he disciplined all his men at various times, particularly when a complaint was not answered in a timely manner.

The first hint of serious problems in the department surfaced last October, when the Franklin County District Attorney’s Office asked that sexual crimes against juveniles be investigated by the Sheriff’s Department and not Wilton police.

The new chief, former Rumford Lt. Wayne Gallant, has since been given full authority over all investigations, but the district attorney’s investigation is still pending.

No help on the way

Parker said he made several requests for a part-time secretary to former Wilton Town Manager Richard Davis, who now is Farmington’s town manager. Davis confirmed last week that Parker had asked for more help, but said he and selectmen didn’t think the town could afford more.

“To his credit, he did ask for help,” said Davis, who served as Wilton manager from 1988 to 2001. “It just wasn’t in the cards” because of financial limitations.

Meanwhile, Selectman Norman Gould said Parker failed to convince the board that any increase was necessary.

“If Jim had come in and really lobbied hard for a secretary, he might have gotten it,” Gould said.

The department’s budget was kept to a minimum and wasn’t given appropriate resources to get the job done, according to Parker. As an example, cruisers were run with 150,000 to 200,000 miles on them, he said. His training budget was kept bare-bones; there was some money for tuition, but none for overtime or travel and personal expenses for the officers.

He relied heavily on regional training events in Farmington, he said.

“If the town had thought they wanted a more professional police department, they would have budgeted for it,” said Davis, adding that at one point the town considered disbanding the police.

“It was a small department, with limited resources and a chief of the old school who was not a particularly dynamic leader,” Davis said. “They were fairly competent, given those limitations. (Parker) did the best job he could given the limited resources.”

No evaluations

Parker said he was never formally critiqued by either Davis or current Town Manager Peter Nielsen. Both managers confirmed that.

“I don’t know, it just wasn’t part of the culture at the time,” Davis said of annual written job performance evaluations.

Nielsen, former town manager of Clinton and Wayne, said small towns typically rely on informal evaluations. He does not evaluate other town employees, he said.

“Matters are dealt with informally and not in writing, sometimes successfully, sometimes not,” he said.

Parker joined the Wilton department when it was a one-man force.

“Back then, they just gave you a gun and you went out” without any training, Parker said.

“It was a different game then,” Selectman Gould agreed. “Life has not changed here as fast as it has some other places. That’s not all bad, but sometimes it comes back to bite you,” he continued.

Parker also noted that the three police chiefs who conducted the investigation didn’t even give him the courtesy of a call.

When asked why the committee chose not to interview Parker, Augusta Police Chief Wayne McCamish, chairman of the three-man investigation board, said the information the group was seeking was “apparent by what was there and what wasn’t.”

“We didn’t feel it was necessary to interview him at his home,” he said of the retired chief.

Selectman Gould, who has served the town for 37 years, defended the independent investigators.

“We hired them to conduct the study as they saw fit, and they did it in any manner they saw fit.”