By Cliff White

Staff Writer

State and local officials in southern Maine have teamed up to form a
violent crimes task force to combat the recent increase in the rate of
violent crimes across the state.

The police departments of Biddeford, Scarborough, South Portland and
Portland, along with the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office are joining
forces with the U.S. Marshal’s Service and the U.S. Attorney to improve
coordination in the investigation of crimes, officials from the six
enforcement offices announced in a press conference on Monday.

“More and more of the criminal acts that we deal with are involved in
activities that are multi-jurisdictional, and as such it is important
that we engage in sharing and regional efforts toward dealing with the
criminal element that transcends any borders that may exist between
municipalities and townships and any other borders that are created
politically,” Portland Police Chief Timothy Burton said.

Each of the members of the Southern Maine Violent Crimes Task Force
will supply an investigator who will work full-time on task-force
initiatives.

“We made a decision that a team — a stand-alone team with permanent
relationships — was going to give us the best yield possible,” Sheriff
Mark Dion of the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office said. “The citizen
doesn’t care what uniform responds to these tragic events, what they
want to see is results. I think the multi-jurisdictional approach is
just that.”

Following the signing of the task force agreement, five investigators —
one from each local department — were sworn in as deputy U.S. marshals
by U.S. Marshal for the district of Maine, David Viles. This gives them
access to Marshal’s Service crime databases and communication with
Marshal offices throughout the U.S. and around the globe.

Viles said that the new organization would direct the pooled resources
of all six departments, plus the added strength of their coordination
with the U.S. Marshal’s Service and the U.S. Attorney, against southern
Maine’s worst criminals.

Biddeford’s Chief of Police Roger Beaupre attended the press conference
and signed the document of agreement. He said that he thought the
initiative was important for Biddeford to participate in, even though
it means the lending of a full-time investigator away from local
affairs.

“The people who the task force will target hop from place to place,”
Beaupre said. “They are transients who go from one community to
another. All communities in southern Maine share the same criminals.”

John Clark, Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal for the district of Maine, aided
in the formation of the task force. In addition to working in the
communities of the six full-time participants, task force services will
also be available to smaller forces that don’t have ability to commit
necessary resources.

“While Maine’s murder rate is relatively low, murders, attempted
murders, robberies and aggravated assault have been on the rise
recently in the state,” Clark said. “The task force we are forming will
provide resources to help combat these types of crimes that a lot of
these local police forces lack.”

Clark said that the task force would not step on the toes of local law
enforcement investigations, but rather assist them by adding additional
strength to their operations.

“The task force is not intended to replace anything that is existing.
It won’t independently investigate crimes of violence, which still will
be investigated by the agency or agencies responsible,” Clark said.
“Rather, the task force will come in as a force multiplier to help
those agencies run down investigative leads whether in Maine or other
states. They will be able to take advantage of the nation-wide
authority of the U.S. Marshal’s Service, so that, as the case
progresses, once a suspect is identified and is believed to have fled
the area, they can use federal resources to find the suspect, even if
the suspect has fled worldwide. We’re giving investigators another
resource to track criminals down and apprehend them.”

The task force will also be utilized for surveillance purposes, said
Clark. “A lot of departments resources get stretched pretty thin just
investigating crimes. They don’t have the luxury or ability to do
surveillance of a location over periods of days or weeks, but the
task-force would be able to provide that resource.”

There will be a daily reprioritization of task force activities, Clark
said, with enforcement priority, given to those individuals who pose
the greatest threat to public safety in the communities. Daily
reprioritization is also intended to ensure the participating agencies
get the biggest bang for their buck, Clark said.

Though federal funding has been requested from the task force,
according to Clark it will not receive any until at least the next
fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. Until then, each agency involved will
pay its own way. Clark said the task force welcomes any other agencies,
which would like to participate, though without federal funding it is
unable to provide them with any sort of compensation for doing so.

“This thing really has a lot of potential to be a big success,” Clark said.