Frye Island, a small summer town in the middle of Sebago Lake, is planning to form a police department this year after its sheriff reduced service.
The island, which is accessible by a seasonal car ferry from Raymond or private boat, sits mostly empty after the lake freezes over. In the summer, up to 3,000 people live there. That creates a spike in demand for services and a need for regular policing.
“We go very long, long periods of time with little to no coverage out here,” Jay Nardone, a member of the island’s executive committee, said. “We had to do something different.”
The island had a police department until about a decade ago, when the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office took over. But it told Frye Island officials in January that staffing problems meant it couldn’t guarantee consistent non-emergency coverage. That pushed an ongoing bid to relaunch the defunct police department into overdrive.
Frye Island’s response is an odd side effect of the service cuts that have hit local policing across the state. Sheriffs have been stretched thin by state police cutbacks on rural patrols that were rolled out in 2020. For example, lawmakers in Washington County have tried to get money restored for policing in their area.
“I think what we’re trying to do is hit the sweet spot in terms of what Frye Island needs to make people feel like our rules matter, and they’re taken seriously and they’re enforced, but at the same time not turning it into some place that’s unpleasant,” Town Manager Bill Braun said at a Wednesday select board meeting.
Frye Island is now hiring Peter Herring, an area game warden, to serve as the new department’s chief, Braun said, citing his local knowledge and the temperament for the job. The department will begin work by Memorial Day. Three more officers are ready to be hired as deputies.
The town will test out schedules to determine what hours it most needs patrols but is aiming for 80 hours of coverage per week, select board chair Sara Lewis said. That’s double the amount previously provided by the town’s $60,000 annual contract with the county sheriff.
The cost of launching the department will largely be covered by town reserves, including money it gets from UPS and FedEx to deliver packages to and from the mainland. Police service will cost the town about $160,000 per year. That would cost someone with a property worth $500,000 an additional $150 in property taxes per year going forward.
The department will operate out of a small rented space until more permanent quarters can be built. A Ford Explorer, the new force’s first police car, is expected to arrive in the coming weeks, Lewis said.
Lewis, who is also the secretary of Maine’s ACLU chapter, said the department would focus on community policing and restorative justice. Herring could not immediately be reached for comment. In a statement read at Wednesday’s meeting by Lewis, he said he expected his officers to be “visible and approachable.”
There is little crime to fight on Frye Island. Over the past two years, the sheriff’s office responded to a total of 722 calls there. About a third of them were property checks.
“Things bother us that would not be an issue on the mainland,” Braun said, providing an example. “They don’t worry about golf carts. We do.”
Daniel O’Connor is a Report for America corps member who covers rural government as part of the partnership between the Bangor Daily News and The Maine Monitor, with additional support from BDN and Monitor readers.
