Norway, Paris and Oxford. Three different towns, three similar experiences.

Riding with the local police agencies is an eye-opening experience. Depending on the time of year, the temperature, the phases of the moon, it can be a very busy night or a very slow one. It can be alcohol heavy or assault focused. Or it can be numerous car crashes and traffic stops.

Sometimes it can be sad. Sometimes scary. But it’s rarely boring, officers all agree, because every night is different.

Oxford

Sgt. Rickie Jack has been with Oxford Police Department 21 years. He has a sort of laid-back attitude that does him well on the street. It diffuses things. Further, he knows most of the residents in town so he is seen as more than a cop, he’s seen as a friend.

Working 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. on a Friday in October, Jack gets an update from his lieutenant, Mike Ward, at the start of shift and begins his night responding to a report of an open door at a residence. The resident is asleep inside and says the wind must have blown open the door at the same time he realizes his dog has escaped.

Jack leaves him looking for his dog and tells of his history with the man and how he had to notify him of a parent’s death.

Jack follows this up with a quick traffic stop and a ticket for driving with no lights.

Next, he’s called to a residence in the mobile home park on Skeetfield Road, where the residents have no central heat and someone has just stolen their heater and fuel tank.

It’s now about 7 p.m. and he heads up for a quick patrol through the Oxford Casino parking lots. A call comes in from dispatch saying Mechanic Falls Police want to bring someone to the Oxford police station for a breath test for alcohol because they have no testing apparatus. The other officer on duty, Reserve Officer Reginald Littlefield, takes the call.

As he finishes his patrol through the parking lot, he responds to a call from the victim in a sex offense case he is working on. He parks and listens patiently as the victim works his way through his concerns. Jack is very supportive and reassuring. The call lasts 12 minutes.

Jack says the town is 60 square miles and he drives an average of about 90 miles each shift. 

A call comes in for an 8-year-old in crisis. Jack responds along with Oxford Rescue and the child is transported to St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center in Lewiston. Jack confers with the child’s social worker for a moment and then heads out.

“We get called here a lot,” he said.

He talks about the working relationship between the towns and the police agencies.

“At night, all you got is each other . . . no chiefs, detectives just the other officers. The night crews are tight.”

Around 9:15 p.m., after driving back road after back road, checking on property and noting each one on his “run” sheet, he backs up Littlefield at a traffic stop.

At 10 p.m., he makes a traffic stop for a vehicle going fast, then slow, and crossing over the centerline.

Guns and ‘what if’

Around 11 p.m., dispatch notifies him of a 911 hang-up call. Both units respond and drive down a rutted dirt road to see if they can find out who made the call. At the end of the road, among parked cars, is smoke from a campfire.

Jack gets out of his vehicle and speaks with a man who walks up. The man admits to having made the 911 call. He tells Jack how his brother pointed a .45-caliber gun at his friend and he dialed 911 and hung up because he didn’t want his brother to know . . . he was afraid of him.

He says the friend took off and went home and his brother isn’t there, either. But as the man is talking to Jack and Littlefield, another man walks up behind them.

It is the brother.

The officers separate the two — both of whom have been drinking — and speak to them. The brother says he was sitting in his car and he does have weapons in the car and permits for each. Jack asks the brother to wait inside Littlefield’s truck.

With the brother’s permission, they look in his car and find handguns and semi-automatic weapons.

The brother is arrested on a charge of criminal threatening and Littlefield takes him to the jail in Paris.

Jack asks the brother who called 911 to write a statement but he declines, saying he will do so in the morning when he is sober.

Jack leaves and says he doubts the brother will give a statement but it won’t be a problem because everything said was recorded on the dash camera of the cruiser.

He drives to the friend’s house. The friend has no problem giving a statement and is still very shaken up about having a gun held to his head.

Jack returns to the station for what he says will be three hours of paperwork.

The children

Patrolman Alan Coffin has been a cop as long as Jack. He says they grew up together in Oxford and went to the police academy together. They began their careers working for different agencies but ultimately came to Oxford. Both work the night shift.

He begins his 12-hour shift at 1 p.m. on a Saturday in November.

His first call after 6 p.m. is for a 13-year-old boy who is being disobedient. He arrives at the home to see the child sitting alone on the front steps with his chin in his hands.

Coffin talks with him as the stepfather rounds the house. A few minutes later, a car pulls up. It’s the boy’s mother. The four of them converse and the boy is polite and respectful although his eyes are suspiciously glistening. They send him inside as Coffin checks with the parents.

Coffin returns to patrol, driving by a home in the trailer park and abruptly taking a left to go around the block.

There was a domestic violence call there, he says, and the man is not supposed to be there. He had seen a vehicle and wanted to check to make sure the man was not on the property. He parks around the corner and proceeds on foot.

A few minutes later, he is back. The man was not there but the smell of marijuana was pretty strong, he says.

He drives to an empty property that’s for sale and gets out of his vehicle, flashlight in hand, and proceeds to walk the property and check doors and windows.

“We’ve had trouble here in the past,” he says.

Next it’s a traffic stop for a headlight that’s out and another for a loud exhaust and no plate light.

Coffin answers a report of a theft at the casino, meeting with security personnel and two people deemed too intoxicated to be driving. Oxford Patrolman Jeremy Coron also arrives. 

The owner of a missing cellphone tells police she is sure it has been stolen. She says she has stored Social Security numbers, passport information, codes to her house alarm, bank passwords and other info on it. Her husband has “pinged” the phone through an app on his phone and it says her phone is half a mile away.

First, Coffin deals with the intoxicated couple. The female protests loudly that she would never drive drunk because she already has a drunken-driving conviction. She says they were in the car to charge her phone but now she can’t find her car keys because she threw them when she saw the police officers.

She tells Coffin they are from Bath and it’s only 11 miles away. She doesn’t appear to have any idea where she is. They call a Bath taxi.

She searches through the back seat of the car and sifts through empty beer cans. Eventually, she finds her keys. However, she has the savvy to know if she sits in the driver’s seat and starts the car, she could be arrested. She is told to go ahead and charge her phone.

In the meantime, casino security has prepared a “no trespass” order for the man because he had been mouthy with them. He refuses it and then starts mouthing off at the officers. The woman chimes in, saying it isn’t fair for him to get one and not her. So security obliges and issues her one as well. She accepts hers.

Leaving Coron to watch the couple as she charges her phone and waits for the taxi to make sure they don’t leave, Coffin goes back to the missing phone report and meets up with the couple inside the casino.

He consents to taking the man to the point where his phone app says her phone is. Half a mile or so down the road, up a long dirt driveway halfway up a hill, he pulls over. They get out. Coffin calls Coron and learns that the couple are still in the car charging the phone but all is quiet.

Coffin asks him to join him on the phone search. They all troop off through the brush and woods. They are gone about 10 minutes returning brushing off their clothes to ward off ticks.

They still have not found the phone.

As Coffin drives back to the casino, the intoxicated couple’s vehicle passes him. He makes an abrupt U-turn, put on the blue lights and the vehicle pulls over.

The female gets out, giving the officers excuses.

She fails a field sobriety test and is arrested on a charge of driving under the influence and put in the back of Coffin’s vehicle. Coron stays with the man and calls for a wrecker. Eventually, the male is picked up by the taxi and the wrecker takes the vehicle.

In the meantime, Coffin has taken the female back to the police station for a breathalyzer test for alcohol. He removes the handcuffs and asks her to sit in the chair.

She refuses the test and demands a blood test, saying he will cheat with the breathalyzer. He calls for a technician to draw a blood sample.

She demands to go to the bathroom. He tells her she has to wait for the blood tech. She gets unruly and says she has rights, then leaps from the chair, demanding the bathroom.

He calmly asks her to sit and explains that she must wait for the tech to arrive. She tells him she is going to pee on the floor.

This goes on for a while until she leaps up again and gets in his face. Ignoring his request that she sit back down, she starts waving her arms and he is forced to put her back in handcuffs.

She loudly demands another officer because she “doesn’t feel safe.”

“You assaulted me I don’t feel safe,” she tells him. “I have rights and I demand you get your boss down here.” 

She points to the camera and says Coffin will get his when they look at the tape for putting his hands on her.

Coffin calls Coron in.

Eventually the blood tech arrives and takes her to the bathroom. They return and she allows the tech to take her blood, all the while mouthing off about Coffin.

She demands to call her son who is, apparently, home alone, although she has to ask him if he’s home or out. It is 2:20 a.m.

The number is dialed on Coron’s phone and the 15-year-old son answers. She tells him she is with friends in Oxford but instead of simply saying she won’t be home and not to worry, she proceeds to tell him she has been arrested and is on her way to jail. The boy gets upset. She hands the phone to Coron and the boy says although he knows he “probably can’t, could he please let his mother go?” 

Coron calmly explains why that can’t happen and talks with the boy for a few minutes. He gives the phone back to the woman, who listens and attempts to reassure her child that “this won’t make any difference” because  they don’t live in Oxford. The child eventually works himself into a full-blown hysteria, muddled with tears and anger at his mother. He hangs up on her.

Coffin puts her back in the car and takes her to the county jail. She gets mouthy again and tells anyone who will listen that she wants him to remove his uniform and she will take him outside and “beat the crap out of him.”

She accuses him of all sorts of things before she is marched away into a holding cell to await booking.

Coffin leaves. It is now 3:18 a.m. well past the end of his shift. He returns to the police department to do his paperwork and, perhaps, think about the children.

Norway

Officer John Lewis’ night shift on a Friday in mid-November begins as it ends — quietly. He starts the night with a complete check of his patrol vehicle, including all equipment and even any “dings” on the vehicle.

The first call is an an alarm at New Balance. After walking around the plant, checking every door, Lewis determines there is no intrusion and lets dispatch know.

Lewis next answers a 911 “misdial” call from a disabled man who is convinced the “cops” are “talking about him and plotting against him.”

Arriving at the address, Lewis greets the caregiver who apologizes. Lewis goes into the man’s bedroom and spends some time chatting with him and reassuring him that the local cops think he’s great and are not talking about or plotting against him. The man is reassured.

As Lewis leaves, the man shouts, “I know it’s not you — it’s the staties!”

Lewis gets a motorist for going 51 mph in a 35-mph zone. The 17-year-old has a provisional license, which may mean he loses it.

As Lewis heads down Beal Street, he is behind a truck with a headlight out. Lewis pulls it over to discover the inspection ran out in August, insurance ran out in May and registration ran out in September. 

The driver says he is calling his boss. The boss tells the employee he was planning to get all that done Monday and has an appointment for an inspection on Wednesday. Lewis allows the driver to park the truck at his home and cautions him not to drive it again until all the paperwork is up to date.

Another alarm comes in for New Balance but this time dispatch says a keyholder is on the way. Lewis circles the area again and sees nothing amiss.

It is now after 10 p.m. and Lewis heads down to the intersection of Alpine and Paris streets, where the traffic lights have gone to blinking.

“This is a great spot,” he explains. “People just don’t stop for the blinking red light.”

In fact, most claim they didn’t know they had to stop, he says.

After a number of “rolling” stops, he pulls one vehicle over and the driver tells him she didn’t know she was supposed to stop. He warns her and she continues on.

Another car comes to the intersection. The vehicle is missing a plate light so he pulls it over by the cemetery, just past the high school.

After asking for license, registration and insurance, he asks, “Where’s the marijuana?”

“Here it is,” the front seat passenger says, handing him a plastic baggie of buds.

Lewis calls the Paris officer on duty, Gino Valeriani, and asks him to come back him up for a car search. Valeriani  arrives and he stands with the three young people ages 19, 18 and 16 while Lewis searches the vehicle. 

As he searches he mumbles to himself, “Marijuana everywhere!”

He gets out of the car with three baggies of marijuana. He hands an evidence bag to the passenger and asks her to collect the “roaches” or unsmoked ends of the “joints” that litter the car. She does and there’s more than 50 or so in the bag.

He writes her a summons on a charge of possessing marijuana. He does not cite the driver or other passenger. He does, however, caution the driver that she needs to fix the missing plate light and unless she cleans her car, any time she’s pulled over the car will be searched because it reeks of (unsmoked) marijuana.

The teens cheerfully pile back into the car and drive away.

Paris

Paris Officer Raymond Paar works the night shift. He joined Paris police in 1993, making him the longest-serving officer in the department. He has worked for numerous chiefs and says he is content exactly where he is.

The first Saturday night in December starts slowly with an update from the day shift from Officer Bill Cook. As Paar settles into his cruiser and pulls away from the station, he noted how his style of policing is different from others. Describing himself as laid back, he abruptly jerks the wheel and makes a U-turn, throwing on the blue lights and pulls a Subaru over.

“Headlamp out and no taillights,” he says.

Out of the car he shines his light across the vehicle’s windshield. He bends down and speaks with the driver as he accepts her paperwork. The taillights go on.

Back in the cruiser, he shakes his head.

“She had the lights on the wrong setting,” he said. “But she doesn’t have an inspection sticker and I can’t ignore that.”

The driver had moved here from Georgia where inspection is not required and said she had no idea Maine required one. Paar reluctantly writes her a ticket that will cost her $133. 

She’s a very nice lady,” he says.

This will turn out to be the most exciting thing for the next nine hours in a long, almost call-less shift.

With the radio silent — not just for Paris but for Norway and Oxford — Paar proceeds to patrol the many roads of Paris. Everything is quiet.

On Halls Pond Road, Paar pulls over to check on a pickup truck idling by the reservoir. After a brief conversation, he returns to the cruiser saying it was a young couple, living with parents, looking for some private time. They were sent along their way.

A call comes over the radio telling Paar and Reserve Officer Harry Sims to be on the lookout for a silver SUV. The boyfriend is concerned that his girlfriend is driving from Sumner to Paris and she is intoxicated.

Armed with a “best guess” address the boyfriend thinks she might be headed to, the officers take each end of a probable route. Paar starts with the assumed destination but the house is dark and only the owners’ cars can be seen. He backtracks the most likely route the woman might take. However, he points out, “there are multiple ways she could go … .” 

Eventually he calls to dispatch that he is “back in service but will keep an eye out for the vehicle.”

He stops for dinner at local fast food establishment. Then he goes back on patrol.

“Doing this for this many years,” he says, “I know what looks normal and what doesn’t.”

This, he explains, is a big advantage when on patrol. All the roads, homes and cars are familiar so it is easy to spot something not quite right.

Around 1 a.m., the radio having been silent for hours, he returns to the Police Department to do paperwork.

When he gets off shift after 6 a.m., he’ll pick up some breakfast and go home to eat with his wife. It will have been a long night.

asheehan@sunmediagroup.net