Town officials expect a former school officer to help relations with area young people.
FRYEBURG – A lawman known for his way with young people has been named the town’s next police chief.

Lincoln County Sheriff’s Deputy Tom Hoepner will take charge of the five-man Fryeburg police department on May 2. He replaces former Chief David J. Miles, who resigned abruptly last fall.

Selectman Allan Trumbull said Miles offered no reason for quitting the post.

Hoepner has been serving as Lincoln Academy’s full-time school resource officer since joining the sheriff’s department last June. The academy is in Newcastle. It’s a private school similar in some ways to Fryeburg Academy.

Hoepner served as a police officer in Damariscotta for 10 years before that.

Trumbull, who chairs this town’s Board of Selectmen, said Hoepner stood out from other candidates for the chief’s job from the start.

“We were unanimous all the way through” the selection process in favoring Hoepner, Trumbull said Wednesday.

He headed a selection committee that consisted of a half-dozen townspeople including business owners, religious leaders and Fryeburg Academy representation. They culled applications down to 15 resumes, then interviewed six of those candidates, Trumbull explained. The top two candidates – one of them Hoepner – were then interviewed by selectmen.

Hoepner’s references were as impressive as the candidate was during the interview process, Trumbull said.

But he said Hoepner’s extensive experience in working with young people was the most significant factor for them. Besides serving as Lincoln Academy’s resource officer, he was also the Lincoln County DARE officer, Trumbull said.

He and others in the town are hoping that Hoepner will help to open communications with the town’s young people. That in turn, he said, should alleviate vandalism and other youth-related problems facing the community.

“We want the police to make the young people feel like comfortable in talking with them,” Trumbull said. “We want them to look at the police as though they’re friends, not enemies.”

He said the town also expects Hoepner will step up community policing efforts.

Some officers in department now, he said, “are somewhat standoffish by nature.”

There are a couple of exceptions, he said, but most officers “don’t seem to mingle with the citizens of the community. We want to change that.”

For his part, Hoepner said he intends to observe department functions before making any drastic moves.

“My goal is the same as any new chief,” he told the Lincoln County News. “Quietly get in there, see what’s going on and work to make it the best police department in the state of Maine.”

He said he’ll have an open door policy from the start “and work from there.”