Public Safety Report: September 2024

By Zendelle Bouchard

The City Council’s Public Safety Subcommittee met Sept. 10 to hear updates from our first responder agencies as well as the Public Works Department.

Police Department Updates

New Officer: The Sanford Police Department has a new officer, Chantel Allen, who started Sept. 3. Ofc. Allen lives in Shapleigh and was previously with the Saco PD. She enjoys working the midnight shift and her particular areas of interest are impaired driving enforcement and crisis intervention.

Staffing: Deputy Chief Eric Small reported that the bike patrols over the summer were very well received by the community. Now that fall is here and the SPD’s two School Resource Officers are back in the schools, staffing has shifted. The bike patrols have ended, and the Mental Health Unit is focusing on mental health calls, including two yellow flag assessments last week. Officer Wambolt started at the Criminal Justic Academy on Aug. 19 and will graduate Dec. 20. Lacey Bailey, the OPTIONS clinician from Sweetser who worked with the MHU has left that position and the SPD is awaiting a new liaison to be hired. Chief Craig Andersen said three officers will be retiring in December and another one in the spring, but he is working with the city’s Human Resources staff to fill those positions. Small noted that several certified officers from other departments have applied. Andersen added that hiring officers who have already been through the Police Academy is less of a financial risk for the city, even though the state now requires the hiring department to reimburse the officer’s former department for some training costs.

K9 Grant: see separate story.

Fire & EMS Updates

New Hires: Sanford Fire & EMS recently welcomed four new firefighters, Jackson Rathbun, Caleb Cole, Mason Brousseau and Chase Jellison. Three are EMTs and one is an Advanced EMT. Assistant Chief Rick Smith gave a presentation on the extensive training new hires receive during their three weeks of orientation and one year of probation.

Stats: In the month of August, the department responded to 397 calls, which included six fires and 312 emergency medical service incidents.

Maintenance: Smith reported on the department’s maintenance tracking program for vehicles and equipment. He said currently 88% of their apparatus (vehicles) are up and running. Engine 5 is out of service after it “swallowed a valve” which destroyed the motor, and ambulance 1 is also down with a short in its wiring that is preventing the emergency lights from staying on. The department also tracks 1,500 pieces of equipment, including everything from axes to power tools and computers, and 99% of it is operational at this time.

Sanford Regional Communication Center

Staffing: SRCC Director Bill Tower reported staffing levels remain high with only one vacancy. A couple of interviews are pending. The state average for dispatch centers is 70% staffing.

Training: Recent training for the department included CPR and Narcan instructions, lifesaving for hanging victims and structure fires. Assistant Director Darcy Valido and Supervisor Megan Welch will be attending a dispatch center management class later this month in Augusta. Dispatchers Juli Ouellette and Janet Gallaher will attend first responder mental health training in Farmington on the 25^th, with topics including mental health education and first responder suicide.

Stats: Total calls for August were 9,329, of which 2,578 were 911 calls. The SRCC handles calls for six police agencies and 15 fire departments.

Public Works Updates

Winter Staffing: Public Works Director Matt Hill reported that his department is short eight out of 21 operators for plowing this winter. He is opening contract negotiations with the union to try and get those positions filled as soon as possible. City Manager Steve Buck said that the city’s new Assistant City Manager, Michelle LaBree, will be working on getting the wage scale in line. Otherwise, he said residents may see a significant increase in the time it takes the city to get the streets cleared. Hill is taking the contingency step of hiring the contractor who plows the east side to take on some additional routes for the season.

Traffic lights: Hill said upgrading to an adaptive control system for the new traffic lights on Main Street between the roundabout and Route 202 would cost the city $28,000 per year once the grant funds are expended after the first four years. He called that “a drop in the bucket” compared to the cost of a lawsuit if there was a fatality. He showed a map of crashes that resulted in injuries, and said he was waiting for the police report on a student hit by a vehicle on the first day of school. Hill said bugs are still being worked out with the new traffic lights and asked for patience as complaints are addressed.