By Jami Badershall,Staff Writer
July 4 festivities keep cop on his toes

RANGELEY – More than 5,000 people flock here each year on July 3 to watch the fireworks explode over the lake. Cars crowd the streets, and family after family flood the park looking for a patch of grass on which to spread their blankets.

Officer Brian Hughes’ Independence Day duties started Sunday with confiscating illegal fireworks and breaking up underage drinking parties. On Monday, his day began at 10 a.m. with the children’s parade and ended at 2 a.m. when the big kids finally went home. He remained on call until 8 in the morning.

“It’s usually pretty good,” he said of the July 3 festivities. “You get fireworks violations and drinking in public as the night wears on.”

As he cruised by a parked Honda on the north end of town, he noticed three teens sitting in the car. The driver looks guilty of something. “She looked at me and her eyes got big,” he said.

It was obvious that they were drinking in the car. With vehicles lining each end of the street, it took Hughes less than 30 seconds to find a spot to turn around and return to the car. But by that time, the teens have taken off, presumably into the woods, and all that was left was a crushed can of beer on the ground by the driver’s door. Hughes looked in the brush to see if he could find any of them, but no luck. It’s times like these that a dog would come in handy, he said.

Hughes, 26, has been with the Rangeley Police for two years and worked as an officer in Greenville, his hometown, for the four years previously.

“I always liked the area,” he said of Rangeley. “It’s like Greenville, but it’s not where I grew up.”

Many people have the misconception that nothing happens in a place like Rangeley and figure that Hughes has nothing more to do than to unlock cars.

“But it’s got everything that a big city does. It’s got the same problems, just not on the same scale,” Hughes said. “You’ve got bar fights, drunks, drugs, domestic abuse, weapons violations, traffic problems and civil disputes.”

The Rangeley Police Department is currently short one officer, making Hughes and Police Chief Phil Weymouth the only full-time officers. On Monday, Hughes and part-time officer Joe Keene, who also works full time for the Carrabassett Valley force, were the patrol officers for the night with backup from two Franklin County Sheriff’s Deputies and the Rangeley Fire Police working traffic and crowd control.

It was a night of patrolling the streets and the park, telling people to dump their beer if they were not on private property, chasing down illegal fireworks, taking reports of lost dogs that ran away when the explosions started, directing traffic and looking out for pedestrians.

“One thing after another,” Hughes said.

As the crowd disperses and most people headed home, Hughes cruised up and down the street, verbally warning anyone drinking in public.

He saw three men walking on the sidewalk, one of whom had a beer in his hand. As Hughes turned the patrol vehicle around to tell the man to dump it out, the man took off running down an alley.

“You’re not in trouble,” Hughes yelled, turning on his spotlight, but the man did not slow, slipping on the dew-covered grass as he tried to take a corner. When Hughes drove behind the building, there were two young men sitting at a picnic table. They told him that the man ran past them, tripped over a fence, ran into the tennis court fence, tried to climb it but fell and then took off into the woods.

“He’s probably out on bail and not supposed to be drinking,” Hughes said.

Rangeley was exceptionally busy on the night of the fireworks, and while the town has some slow times throughout the year, law enforcement does not.

“As far as tourists go, Rangeley is busy nine months of the year,” Hughes said. “As far as the police go, we’re always busy. The call numbers are up.”

Living in a small town, you get to know the people and become friends with many of them, but Hughes said that doesn’t interfere with his police work.

“I still do my job. At the same time, I hope they respect me enough not to put me in that position,” he said. “People may hate me for what I chose to do, or they may like me for it, but they know I was doing my job.”

One case in which Hughes was part of a controversy was last year when he shot a black bear that had been hanging around town.

“Some people called it murder,” he says, but added that the bear had become accustomed to living in that area, and had lost all its teeth. The department consulted a bear biologist. “She told us the bear needed to be shot. She said an animal like that can be one of the most dangerous animals to have around and will eventually hurt somebody.”

He received some flak for the incident, but still loves being a Rangeley police officer. “It’s a good job and good people to work for,” he says, adding that he got into law enforcement for the same reason as many others in his line of work.

“I like to help people,” he said. “It’s not about power, it’s public service. When I can see what I did for someone and that it really helped them, that’s what it’s all about, whether it changed their life or just changed their day.”