PARIS — Lt. Justin Cummings, a local native, was introduced as the Paris Police Department’s latest hire at the Paris Select Board’s regular meeting Monday.

Interim Paris Police Chief Det. Alan Coffin (left) introduces the department’s newest hire and second-in-command, Lt. Justin Cummings, to the Paris Select Board during its regular meeting Monday. Cummings grew up in Oxford and is returning home. Evan W. Houk/Advertiser Democrat

Cummings will serve as second-in-command of the department, under current interim Police Chief, Det. Alan Coffin. He will be paid $38.85 an hour, for an annual salary of $80,808, which was approved as part of the municipal budget at annual town meeting in June, Town Manager Natalie Andrews said.

Michael Dailey recently resigned as police chief of Paris following a nearly two-month long stint on administrative leave related to a May 6 shootout in Paris.

Coffin, because he discharged a weapon on May 6, was also placed on leave for a short period of time before returning to work, after the town of Paris determined that he followed department policy and procedure correctly, according to Andrews.

Cummings was hired through an ad for a full-time police officer posted to the Maine Municipal Association’s website on April 29, Andrews said.

Cummings grew up in Oxford and participated in Oxford Hills Technical School’s law enforcement program. After graduating in 2012 he joined the U.S. Marine Corps, where he became a sergeant. He was primarily based out of Camp Pendleton and spent time in Afghanistan as a radio operator with an artillery unit.

Cummings holds an associate’s degree in criminal justice and has worked with the Oxford Police Department and Oxford County Sheriff’s Office in the past. He recently returned to the area after living in Washington state to take care of his wife’s mother, who was suffering from cancer, Coffin said at the meeting. 

“I always wanted to get into law enforcement. This is a career for me,” Cummings said. “I’m a Mainer, this is where I belong, this is where I’m going to raise my kids.”

As an Eagle Scout, Cummings helped to maintain and rededicate the memorial on Paris Hill to Timothy L. Willard, a Paris patrol officer who was killed by gunfire in the line of duty on Dec. 29, 1978.

“I’ve had a long interest in law enforcement. So that’s where it got me hooked,” Cummings said.

Emergency meeting

One week before Monday’s regularly scheduled meeting, the select board held a special meeting Monday, July 1, in order to approve a job description for the newly hired lieutenant so that he could get to work as soon as possible, Andrews said.

Notice was provided to the Advertiser Democrat about an hour-and-a-half prior to the meeting, which complies with state law which states the media must be notified. Notification of the press is the only notice required by Maine’s Freedom of Access Act, or “right to know” law, in the rare occurrence of the need to call an “emergency meeting.”

The law only mandates posting notice of a newly scheduled meeting within a “reasonable amount of time” prior to when that meeting would be held, which leaves the statute open to interpretation.

Andrews said the “time-sensitive” nature of the action item necessitated an “emergency meeting” to allow the select board to review and approve the job description for the second-in-command position at the police department.

“Ordinarily this notice must be given in ample time to allow public attendance and in a manner reasonably calculated to notify the general public,” the law states. “In this case, the law requires that local representatives of the media be notified of the meeting, whenever practical, by the same or faster means as used to notify board members.”

“This is like a number two position for the chief of police,” Andrews said at the July 1 meeting. “If something happens, this person will be able to seamlessly slide into that, know where they are as far as training, reports, everything like that.”

She mentioned the current “restructuring” of the police department, noting that with the former chief’s resignation, the chief’s job will be posted and candidates interviewed as they apply until the position is filled.

“I think it is definitely a good thing for the town of Paris to have him,” Andrews said of Cummings on July 1.

The Paris Select Board will next meet at the town office at 6 p.m. July 22.