Officer Dominick Carll, Oxford Police Department A.M. Sheehan
OXFORD — What do you do when you are a “go-getter” and not content to go with the flow? If you are Dominick Carll, 25, you graduate early from high school, go into the military (because you are still too young to go into law enforcement which is what you really want to do) go to college then join Oxford Police Department.
“I grew up in New Gloucester and graduated from Gray New Gloucester High School,” Carll laughs. “I saw high school as sort of a [time] of hanging out with friends and I wanted to take things seriously.”
Carll is sixth generation military and his dad is a police officer with the Auburn Police Department. It was in his blood. “I knew I wanted to be in law enforcement and follow in my father’s footsteps but I was too young to go in [to law enforcement] after high school – you have to be 21 – so I followed my brother’s footsteps and joined the Marines at 17. I graduated a year early so I could go into the Marine Corps.
“I was stationed at Camp Pendleton in California for four years.” During this time he served in combat zones with the Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) in Africa and the Middle East. He received a meritorious promotion to corporal and by the time he left the Marines, he was a sergeant.
“I wanted to pursue special forces but I got injured during selection.” Because of his injury he decided to leave the Marines. “I decided my best option was to get out and pursue my next goal of law enforcement. I was trying to go right into law enforcement but I had to have surgery [for the injury] so I went to college.”
He earned a degree in criminal justice from Central Maine Community College. After recovering from surgery, he paid his own way through the Maine Criminal Justice Academy to complete the training which would allow him to serve as a reserve officer.
In 2020, Oxford Police Department hired Carll part time and in 2021 he went to full time-reserve officer. OPD sent him back to the Academy to become a full-time officer. Proving his “go-getter” attitude, while at the Academy he placed at the top of his class, earning the Emergency Vehicle Operations Course Proficiency Award; Mechanics of Arrest, Restraint and Control Proficiency Award; Sid Bridges Firearms Proficiency Award; Combined Practical Skills Proficiency Award and Frank E. Poirier III Professionalism Proficiency Award. He was also the 40th BLETP Class President.
On top of all this, he and his dad opened a gym in 2019, the summer he got out of the military, called Carll Clan Brazilian jiu-jitsu. “I began training [in jiu-jitsu when I was 13,” he says, “and am currently a brown belt.” He also got married that year to a woman he met while stationed in California. They have not started their family yet, but that’s “soon to come!” he says.
Carll says “having been around law enforcement my whole life I’ve seen how sometimes the lack of training [can be a problem] and I always wanted to bring good training to law enforcement.” He is quick to clarify that law enforcement are trained well but that after graduating from the Academy, “there’s a gap and lack of time, budgetary constraints, staffing often affects the ability of departments to provide ongoing, updated training to officers. It’s really tough for us to continue training.”
This is what Carll hopes to address. He and his dad already do so with free membership to all law enforcement at their gym.
So why jiu-jitsu? Because it’s a no-striking, control-based martial art. Originating in Japan, jiu-jitsu is a standing art but the Brazilian method brings to down to become ground-based.
“I just used it this morning,” notes Carll as he brushes dirt off his knees.
Carll is also an avid shooter, he says, and intends to soon become a certified firearms training instructor. He invites all officers to “come shoot with me.”
He is also focused on developing programs within his own agency (OPD) and in partnership with other agencies. “At some point I wouldn’t mind doing some training at the Academy.”
When asked about his best and worst experiences so far he is thoughtful. “I think they are the same,” he says.
“I always have candy with me which I hand on when on patrol [in neighborhoods] and there are some kids I’ve gotten to know … their life isn’t great and one night I had to respond to a domestic at their house and arrest [a parent]. The kids witnessed it.”
The fact the children already had a good relationship with him he feels was good as otherwise all they would have seen was just a cop who took their parent away.
Carll has been on nights, he says, but just switched to days. He says the adrenaline of the type of calls at night was interesting but days allow him to meet and interact with people from the Oxford community, something he really enjoys.
Carll says, “I am thankful to my parents and my father for giving me discipline and drive to do what I do effectively.”
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