BETHEL — Six months after residents voted to disband the police department, concerns about coverage from the Oxford County Sheriff’s Office have quieted.

Stan Howe, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, said he hasn’t heard any complaints. “We have people who were against it in the beginning, some of them have called me and say they now think it’s a great idea.”

“We’d had a police department since the ’60s,” Howe said. Some people were attached to the idea of having a town police force.

Oxford County Sheriff Wayne Gallant said his deputies are providing full coverage. “If by chance they go cover an accident up in Gilead, another deputy slips up and covers Bethel,” he said. What’s more, he said, many calls get two deputies responding.

“That was something new for Bethel. In a lot of the burglaries, not only does a patrol deputy show up, but sometimes a detective shows up,” Gallant said.

Deputies work at a satellite office in the Mahoosuc Land Trust building.

Deputy Michael Parshall, who has been covering Bethel since September, said the office is conveniently located. When suspects under arrest are cooperative, he said, deputies can call the bail commissioner and bail them from Bethel.

“It saves the taxpayers’ money,” Parshall said. The Maine State Police and Maine Warden Service also use the office.

Parshall said citizens’ nervousness at losing the police department was understandable, but that people quickly saw the advantage of having the county’s largest police force looking out for them.

“Everyone’s been impressed with the presence of the police,” Howe said.

After the departure of Chief Alan Carr in September 2009, Bethel had only one full-time officer. Coverage was sparse, and providing full coverage yearly was estimated at $453,794. The Oxford County Sheriff’s Office would provide the coverage for $295,000, which would pay for salaries, equipment and office space for three full-time deputies to provide 24-hour coverage.

At the town meeting in June, voters approved a referendum to replace the Bethel police department with county coverage, 526-403. This followed a special town meeting in February where voters approved county coverage 109-89. Selectmen opted to put it to a referendum vote at town meeting because of the low turnout at the February meeting.

The Sheriff’s Office took over at the beginning of Bethel’s fiscal year in July. Gallant said he extended an offer to Bethel Lt. S.R. White, the only full-time officer and the only one with the criminal justice academy training necessary to serve with the Sheriff’s Office. He said White did not respond to the offer.

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