PARIS — The director of the Oxford County Emergency Management Agency is on leave while the Sheriff’s Office conducts an investigation into possible misconduct.

Scott Parker is under investigation for suspected misuse of E-911 information, a database of names, addresses and phone numbers used by emergency personnel to respond to calls.

“Nobody has been charged at all,” Sheriff Wayne Gallant said Thursday. He said when his department completes its investigation, it will turn evidence over to the District Attorney’s Office.

Gallant said he expects the investigation to be complete early next week. “We’ll be giving it to the district attorney, who will decide what course of action, if any, will be taken.”

Parker, who has been the EMA director for six years, was placed on paid administrative leave May 26.

“If the sheriff’s investigation is wrapped up in the near future, we can evaluate that and perhaps act on that or, perhaps, conduct a separate internal investigation,” County Administrator Scott Cole said.

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Cole said Parker will remain on leave until the sheriff’s investigation is complete and until the county conducts its own investigation.

Lee Holman, chairman of the Hartford Board of Selectmen, told the board Thursday night that she and Road Commissioner Jeremy Johnson attended a training session on the CityWatch alert system led by Parker on May 25. The next day the Oxford County Sheriff’s Department came to the office and took the teaching manual, Holman said.

Town Clerk Lianne Bedard told the board it had something to do with privacy of information.

Hartford EMA Director Tom Standard said in a telephone interview Thursday night that a sheriff’s deputy called him May 26 to ask to be let into the Town Office to get the manual, because it contained phone numbers that were not to be released.

“He wanted to know if copies had been made,” Standard said.

He said the deputy told him that sheriff’s officers were being sent to all towns that had copies of the manual to pick them up.

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“We’re not making any judgments as to what may or may not have occurred, and whether it can be classified as misconduct,” Cole said. “There appears to have been mishandling of information that is statutorily protected.”

Cole confirmed the investigation is related to the county’s new CityWatch program, a mass-notification system that uses the E-911 database to notify residents in a geographical area of possible danger, such as a natural disaster or a dangerous person.

The CityWatch system was used in May when two burglary suspects crashed a van on Paris Hill Road. Police used the system to send automated calls to residents near the crash site telling them to stay indoors and be vigilant.

Parker has been lauded for the CityWatch program and other efforts, including the creation of a Community Emergency Response Team.

treaves@sunjournal.com


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