I spent two hours on patrol with Officer Roma of the Brunswick Police Department last Sunday afternoon?so I guess you could say I was a police officer for Halloween.
As long as you are willing to sign a waiver, saying, among other things, that you will "dress appropriately," anyone, any day, can go on patrol with a Brunswick police officer as part of their "Ride-a-Long" public relations program.
Before joining the Brunswick Police Department, Officer Roma, age 25, worked for the Cumberland County Sheriff's Department which is responsible for policing all towns within Cumberland County that do not have their own police departments, such as Harpswell. Officers working for the Sheriff Department, Roma said, sometimes patrolled up to six towns in one shift. In Brunswick, officers are assigned either north or south of Main Street.
Cruising the back roads of Brunswick, Roma explained that there are two major types of police work. Reactive, where officers "just respond to calls" he told me, "was a thing of the past." We were currently engaged in proactive policing, which, he explained, "is going out into the community and making your presence known."
Though Sunday is typically the quietest day at the station, with only three officers on duty compared with nine on Friday and Saturday nights, the afternoon was not without its share of reactive police work.
There were two minor traffic accidents, including an elderly woman from New Hampshire, who, trying to park in front of the Hawthorne-Longfellow Library had mistakenly pressed the accelerator instead of the break, launching her car several yards over the curb. I watched Roma manage the second accident, a minor fender-bender due to solar glare, to the tune of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
Roma also pulled over a car going 46 mph in a 30 mph zone. He declined to ticket the driver however, as they had naturally been confused as to where exactly the speed limit dropped from 45 to 30. The driver had a clean record, Roma explained.
On the topic of Brunswick-Bowdoin relations, Roma said the station had been getting an unusually high number of noise complaints lately, but that overall relations between the town and college seemed very good.
Addressing the issue of underage drinking on campus, Roma said, "We certainly don't look the other way, but we have a lot of discretion." Most of the Brunswick officers have college degrees, so "we've been there, we know what it's like," Roma sympathized. "We do understand that you need to have fun, but we want you to keep it reasonable," he said.
One offense Maine police do not have disciplinary discretion over is domestic violence. Most of the murders committed in Maine begin as domestic disputes and so officers are required by law to separate the parties involved.
Police officers are also mandated not to discuss political matters while on duty. When I asked how people in the department felt about the ban on assault weapons expiring, Roma had "no comment."
I recommend anyone interested in what it feels like to be on the other side of law enforcement to take advantage of this opportunity.