Oh Happy Day

http://www.sunjournal.com/river-valley/story/963727

watchdog at 8:27 am on Jan 03, 2011


and there woulldn"t be a need to hire additional officers. The population doesn"t warrant it. What kind of training do these officers get that the chief cries safety all the time to keep force at these numbers. Back when the town was three times the size the job got done the officers did the job. With all the technology that this dept. has to make the job easier they seem to get softer. This dept. should have no more than 8 total staffing and the cheif should be doing detective work and investigations. The pay does not just warrant admin only.



Can I just say how happy I am Frank is no longer a selectman. What about being able to do 24/7 coverage, having Chief Carter, who also covers numerous other tasks besides sitting behind his desk at the PD, does he not get. How would eight total staff get 24 coverage? Other than the guys never getting sick, never getting a vacation, day off or even a bathroom break. Frank needs a course in shift work scheduling.

wrote: Back when the town was three times the size

The Town of Rumford has never been three times its present size. Typical exaggeration in a failed attempt to prove a point.

Mr. DiConzo needs a course in Rumford's history. Too bad Jennifer Stowell Norris is no longer around to help him out.

We at the RiverValleySun.com would have responded to the many questions posted here much sooner but we had to wait 9 days from submitting our membership here Feb 13 when we where advised of your many questions to today when we finally received notice of activation.

RiverValleySun.com did an extensive report on the Rumford Board of Selectpersons' meeting which covered the hiring of another police officer. This report, which can be found at http://rivervalleysun.com/20/rumford_selectmen_hold_marathon_meeting/ includes a number of documents and links. The population issue as 3 times the current goes to the census figures which can be found at http://www.library.umaine.edu/census/townsearch.asp. The census bureau has stated that they believe the 1930s figure is considerably under stated since at that time there was no door to door surveying, illiteracy was a major issue, and the absence of effective mass communications means such as radio and TV that we have today meant many people did not understand what the census was and the need to file or understand the process. Also the "Great Depression" is believed to have had an effect on the accuracy of the count in 1930.

This report also includes two schedules provided by Candice Casey who submitted a formal written proposal recommending the department not replace the two officers who have resigned. These schedules provide 24 hour coverage for Rumford with at least 2 officers on duty at all times and frequent long weekends built in to be family friendly. It is easy with a department the size of Rumford's Police Department to develop a schedule to have two officers on duty 24 hours a day, it is still easy to do so with a department the size of the Rumford Police Department less 2 officers.

Since the report on the Selectpersons' Meeting which authorized the hiring of another officer, RiverValleySun.com has printed two additional stories related to the Rumford Police Department which may be of interest. The first was a collaborative effort among victims of crime in Rumford whose 911 calls went unanswered. This story can be found at http://rivervalleysun.com/185/rumford_police_cause_citizens_to_be_twice_victims/. The other is part of the February 17, 2011, Selectpersons' meeting at which the Board approved giving the police chief a blank check to aquire a Humvee over the objection of citizens received via telephone calls, emails and at the meeting. This can be found at http://rivervalleysun.com/210/police_chief_gets_blank_check_for_humvee/.

We would like to hear about all the things you think the Police Chief is doing besides spending a lot of Rumford Taxpayer money on officers answering fewer than 1.7 calls per shift by his admission and if the report of the crime victims' in progress left on their own by Rumford Police after calling 911 we estimate they are handling fewer than 1 call per shift, Humvees and other obscene excesses. RiverValleySun.com has a reader forum on which you may post your comments to the reports and the actions of the chief and his officers.

Dear RiverValleySun,

Welcome the the RVFP and please accept my apologies for the delay in granting you access. It was not personal. I simply failed to notice your request to join right away.

Your comments about the free check for the RPD to buy a Humvee are a bit suspect. This was in the Sun Journal.

Police Chief Stacy Carter received approval from the board to apply for a surplus Department of Defense vehicle when one becomes available. The Rumford Police Department has received a pickup truck from the program in the past. Another similar vehicle, such as a pickup or a Humvee, is now needed to help with the D.A.R.E. program, drug eradication, roadblocks and other police activities.

It would seem there is more to the story about the vehicle than you are letting on. What costs are really associated with this vehicle? Anyone else know anything about this?

Another of your "facts"are also suspect. Again from the Sun Journal:

Patrol officers responded to 76 complaints from Feb. 6 to 14, not including basic traffic stops.

It would seem your "fact about RPD responding to "less that 1.7 calls per shift" is inaccurate.

When you misrepresent your "facts" it makes it tough to take you seriously.

We are all very aware of the inaccuracies in the Sun Journals Reporting. Perhaps you would have been better served reading the RiverValleySun.com article on the meeting or watching the meeting on Local Access Channel 7 or even better having attended in person. Police Chief Stacy Carter currently shares a pick-up truck with the fire department. This is a 1997 vehicle which required some investment this year in order to qualify for a Maine State Inspection Sticker. This pick-up truck was obtained through forfeiture. The Humvee the police chief came to the Board of Selectpersons for and obtained in his wording, the selectpersons, and in the wording of the motion “a blank check” for is from the Department of Defense’s Defense Reutilization Program, the full details can be found in the RiverValleySun.com article at http://rivervalleysun.com/210/police_chief_gets_blank_check_for_humvee/.

As to the costs associated with this acquisition, those are also provided as best can be under the circumstances of the “blank check” issued by the board in the article http://rivervalleysun.com/210/police_chief_gets_blank_check_for_humvee/ can be learned by viewing the full content of the meeting on Local Access Channel 7 or if you had attended the meeting as our team did.

I can assure you that our “facts” are most definitely not “suspect” but in fact very well researched even supported by Chief Carter as he supplied them to us, the Rumford Board of Selectpersons, the Town Manager and the Rumford Finance Committee. You may view a copy as of his report as I previously stated on the RiverValleySun.com site. The document is attached to the article, a transcript in effect, of the Selectpersons’ meeting at which authorization was given to hire an additional officer. The article is located specifically at http://rivervalleysun.com/20/rumford_selectmen_hold_marathon_meeting/ with the attachment at http://rivervalleysun.com/assets/21.pdf.

The attachment http://rivervalleysun.com/assets/21.pdf is a computer generated report provided by Chief Carter stating the Rumford Police Department handled 4113 calls in total in 2010. The department has 2190 regular shifts, 2 men working on each of 3 eight hour shifts per day, plus a significant number of additional shifts as frequently 3 uniformed officers have been on duty making the actual number of shifts at least 2190, more likely 3285 or more uniform only. If you figure in the chief and the two detectives at 5 shifts per week, 46 weeks per year (6 weeks’ vacation per year each) for an added 690 shifts per year 690, the total shifts in the department is probably at least 3975 per year. Without taking into consideration the calls we know are going unanswered, that is darn close to 1 call per shift (4113 calls in 2010 reported by Chief Charter divided by 3975 shifts worked).

As we wrote in our earlier comments, the best advice would be to visit our site to get the facts rather than speculate. We invite you again to do so. Since your site would indicate that you are a resident of Rumford and hopefully take the time to exercise your right to vote, we would encourage you to attend the Rumford Board of Selectpersons’ Meetings personally to have firsthand knowledge of what takes place and even participate in the meetings to have your questions answered by the board and Chief Charter on those occasions he decides to attend.

RiverValleySun.com came about out of necessity as the result of lack of journalistic quality and reader issues at Sun Journal which left a huge void we felt had to be filled. The technical intricacies and time demands of publishing, editing, collecting, and reporting a news site was the last thing any of us had expected or had any desire to be doing at this point in our lives. We all very busy with careers, families, and other responsibilities, some of us are retired hoping to travel and enjoy extended family; none of us really have the desire to put in the time and effort this site requires, it is only because of our shared commitment to community that we are not only doing the work but funding it as well from our own pockets. We invite you to contribute as well. If you would like to submit an article, a letter or to post on our site please feel free to do so. RiverValleySun.com is a community effort from the grassroots level.

Stats and statistics are great. I admire you supplying them to prove your point. These stats, however are flawed. Call volume per day, not counting traffic stops, are higher that you try to represent with your convoluted way of trying to justify your point.

What matters to me, as a tax payer of Rumford, is that we have a police force that is adequately staffed, equipped and trained to keep crime down, keep the streets safe for my family to walk down and respond to a call for help if I ever needed it.

Shouldn't that be criteria we use when we talk about level of service?

First, we would like to commend you on your sites notifying participants when a new post has been made in a thread they have made an entry in. This is a very helpful feature when there are not an overwhelming number of posts to swamp a mailbox. We considered doing this but realized that very quickly it would become overwhelming for our readers. Our site is getting far too many visitors each day little more than a month after the soft launch to offer this feature.

We agree with you that level of service is an important criteria. In reviewing Candice Casey’s proposal we feel it is obvious she agrees as well. Her proposal which included three documents is attached to our article at http://rivervalleysun.com/20/rumford_selectmen_hold_marathon_meeting/. She specifically states that the changes she is recommending would not change level of service and details how that is. She included two schedules to demonstrate how the department would be able to keep two officers on duty 24 hours a day 7 days a week with the reduction in staffing and savings to taxpayers.

The statics provide in the call volume report are the only statistics or supporting data that Chief Carter provided the Town Manager, Board of Selectpersons, the Finance Committee or RiverValleySun.com to support his argument opposing the reduction. We provided both the report and his letter of argument as attachments to the report again at http://rivervalleysun.com/20/rumford_selectmen_hold_marathon_meeting/.

It is regrettable that you brought up “what matters to me, as a tax payer of Rumford, is that we have a police force that is adequately staffed, equipped and trained to keep crime down, keep the streets safe for my family to walk down and respond to a call for help if I ever needed it” in light of the fact so many people have called for help during a very serious crime in progress only to have no response from the Rumford Police Department. I would draw your attention to the collaborative report titled Rumford Police Cause Citizens to be Twice Victims at http://rivervalleysun.com/185/rumford_police_cause_citizens_to_be_twice_victims/. The experiences of this growing number of citizens is certainly cause for alarm and should cause one to take pause if during an emergency one is hoping a Rumford Police Officer is coming to one’s aid. After this group completed this effort, we certainly changed our expectations.

We also left out even more alarming statistical data that was uncovered during the preparation of both the http://rivervalleysun.com/20/rumford_selectmen_hold_marathon_meeting/ and http://rivervalleysun.com/185/rumford_police_cause_citizens_to_be_twice_victims/ reports. Despite having this very large police department in comparison to other Maine communities including two detectives, Rumford’s crime statistics, in particular crime clearance rates are abysmal as shown at http://www.maine.gov/dps/cim/crime_in_maine/cim.htm. In reviewing this data it became obvious to us that one of the major contributors to crime in our area is the lack of performance by our police department. They are simply not solving crimes, or if they are providing prosecutors with prosecutable cases that are winning convictions. We noted the unmistakable trend that every year since Chief Carter has taken over as Chief of the Rumford Police Department the clearance rate has gone down.

We deliberately left this data out of our reporting so as not to draw to the attention of criminal elements within and outside the community Rumford is a great place to commit criminal acts with very little chance of getting caught or paying for it in comparison to other communities. We felt publishing this information would have been adding to the invitation that has been extended to criminals to ply their trade here, an invitation that has gotten better and better under Chief Carter’s administration.


There must be some measuring stick by which to determine level of service and performance in any business or governmental activity. As far as we have been able to determine the Rumford Police Department fails by every measuring stick in providing service to law abiding citizens while extended a welcoming hand to criminals.