In policing as anything else, working together is better

If someone finds a gun, illegal drugs, unspent ordnance or ammunition, safety officials from bordering states like Maine and New Hampshire should be able to expedite collection of such material as a matter of public safety.

This week in Lebanon a man found a baggie of suspected heroin near the border of Milton. When police in Milton refused to come and get it - because they had no jurisdiction in Maine - the man walked with the heroin over to downtown Milton.

When he called police he was apprised that he had broken the law and could be arrested, and told to immediately return to Maine to wait for Maine State Police to pick it up.

Many might have become frustrated with the amount of time taken to turn the drugs over and tossed it on the side of a road where a dog or children might have gotten into it.

Thankfully, Bruce French of Lebanon did the right thing, waiting nearly a couple of hours to turn it over to Maine State Police who took longer than usual due to a motor vehicle accident on TM Wentworth Road in West Lebanon.

Lebanon and Milton fire and rescue work together using mutual aid responses depending on the location and severity of the call.

We realize that Milton residents may see such mutual aid in law enforcement as a win-lose situation, because the likelihood of Milton PD being called to West Lebanon may be greater than Maine State Police being called to Milton as Milton has its own municipal police department.

However, the incidence rate in which a Milton officer might go to Lebanon in a mutual aid situation is probably fairly rare.

Wednesday's incident with the heroin baggie would have been one of them, if a mutual aid agreement existed.

Other calls that might be appropriate for a Milton response into Lebanon and appreciated and endorsed by MSP might be a burglary in progress or possible hostage situation.

But let's not forget there's no reason to think that Milton or another local municipal police agency might not benefit by the two states cooperating.

It was less than six months ago that a Maine State Police officer helped Berwick officers catch up with and arrest a Berwick man who earlier had drawn pursuit from Somersworth Police for several traffic violations.

MSP Trooper Michael Lane took the lead pursuit position and deliberately crashed his cruiser into the suspect's vehicle, disabling it on the Heath Road in Lebanon at great peril to his own personal safety.

The suspect was arrested on charges of eluding police, probation violations out of New Hampshire and Maine and aggravated trafficking in Schedule "W" Drugs for attempting to conceal more than 40 grams of heroin in a body cavity while being admitted to the York County Jail.

The arrest resulted from a seamless cooperative effort that should be the model for city and municipal police as well as state police in both states.

- HT