At just after 1 p.m. Monday, Officer Wayne Drown’s patrol shift had been quiet and routine, which was unusual for such a heavy snowstorm, a time when police are busy responding to accidents and stranded motorists. But after 23 years as a Gorham cop, Drown knows how quickly the pace of a shift can change.

Drown stopped for coffee at the Little Falls Mini Mart on Gray Road, and as he was driving away he got a call over the radio from a Cumberland County dispatcher: An 11-year-old boy was missing in the storm.

Drown, a school resource officer who was on patrol Monday because of the storm, worked quickly with the other four officers on duty to respond. As Drown drove to the boy’s home to talk with the mother, he called Officer Mark Sanborn, another school officer also on duty that day.

“Do you know what he looks like?” he asked Sanborn, who responded that he did.

Sanborn spotted the boy on Main Street a short time later. The boy had been waiting for a friend. “Officer Sanborn will be bringing him right over,” Drown told the worried mom in her living room.

The missing boy was one of thousands of incidents handled each year by Gorham police. An increasing number of such emergency calls and the demands of a growing town have led Gorham Police Chief Ron Shepard to ask for more police officers. Shepard has asked to use what’s left of $200,000 the town set aside to address public safety needs to hire an additional patrol officer. Eventually, Shepard would also like to hire an additional lieutenant and a sergeant.

After a recommendation this fall from a study committee, the Town Council authorized spending more than $130,000 for additional help for the fire and rescue department.

Tuesday, the Town Council directed its personnel committee to meet with Shepard, review the police needs and make a recommendation about manpower.

Shepard said this week he believes the department is understaffed, and he worries about the department’s ability to maintain its current level of response in a growing community.

As an example, two officers man Shepard’s midnight shift. “Two people aren’t enough to handle what’s coming at us,” Shepard said Wednesday.

With an estimated population of 15,301 and 21 officers last year, Gorham had 1.4 officers per thousand of population, according to police employment data by the Uniform Crime Reporting System in Maine. Shepard said the percentage is below the county average of 1.8, according to 2006 statistics. Westbrook had 1.9 officers for each of that city’s 1,000 people.

Last year, Gorham police responded to 16,853 calls. The department handled 14,155 calls this year through the end of September, up from 12,539 for the same period last year.

Drown and Sanborn are among Gorham’s 22 officers, including Shepard, Lt. Chris Sanborn, and three sergeants – Dan Young, Bob Mailman and Mike Nault. That number also includes one officer assigned earlier this year to the federal Drug Enforcement Agency. While his replacement attends Maine Criminal Justice Academy beginning in January for 18 weeks, the department has 10 officers available to work patrol shifts.

Others in the department, in addition to the chief, the lieutenant and three sergants, include two detectives, two school resource officers and an animal control/traffic control officer.

“I’d like to see another lieutenant and a fourth sergeant,” Shepard said.

However, some residents are worried about the effect adding officers would have on the tax rate. Former Town Councilor Phil Dugas, 78, said he hoped the council would think about the impact on elderly taxpayers, who are already facing spiraling home heating and gasoline costs.

“They ought to take into consideration that we’re going through a mild depression,” Dugas said. “It’s a problem for the elderly.”

But assisting the elderly is something police are concerned about as well. Monday, Sanborn drove a 71-year-old Buxton man, Stanley Wakefield, home after his car skidded off Dow Road in Gorham. Wakefield offered to walk home, but Sanborn insisted on driving him home.

“We don’t want to leave you on the side of the road,” Sanborn told Wakefield.

On the day shift during Monday’s snowstorm, Gorham had five officers on patrol. “Normally, there are cars off the road everywhere,” said Drown, who joined the force in 1984.

“Sometimes, you just don’t have enough,” Drown said, if something major happens.

If the missing boy hadn’t been located, Drown would have launched an investigation, calling a detective, a canine unit and alerting other agencies. “They could have been undermanned pretty quick,” Drown said about the Gorham department.

Gorham schedules three shifts with three patrol officers on days, three in the evenings and two working the midnight shift.

The evening and midnight shifts are often short an officer, Shepard said. But he resorts to overtime only when a shift would drop below two people. Shepard said 420 shifts this year have been shorthanded because of vacation, sick leave or training.

Meanwhile, crimes are increasing in Gorham. As of Monday, Gorham had 390 arrests so far this year, compared to 362 for that date a year ago. In 2006, Gorham had 406 arrests, up from 353 in 2005, a 15 percent increase.

Gorham police had issued 453 criminal summonses by Monday, up from 445 a year ago.

In 2006, Gorham had 90 burglaries, 115 larcenies, five rapes, eight aggravated assaults, and 18 car thefts. “The crimes are getting more serious,” Shepard said. “When you get a serious call, you’ve tied up the entire department.”

Domestic problems have placed added demands on police. “They take a lot of time to diffuse,” said Shepard, who added that often weapons are involved.

Booking a prisoner at Cumberland County Jail in Portland can pull an officer off patrol for up to 90 minutes.

Filing reports eats up police time, too. Lt. Chris Sanborn said paperwork for a driver charged with operating under the influence is “half an inch thick.”

Police coverage of accidents can be time consuming for officers. Stanley Wakefield’s single-car crash took about one hour for Mark Sanborn, who stayed at the scene until a tow truck arrived before driving the man home.

“It does tie up a lot of time. Sometimes you have to pull another officer away to direct traffic,” Sanborn said.

Gorham is plagued with heavy traffic especially during commuter rush hours.

“Look at this traffic, it’s only 3:38. It’s already starting to back up,” said Sanborn, as he drove toward the village on Route 25.

And the number of police responses about juveniles is mounting. “Parents are calling the cops because they can’t deal with situations,” Shepard said.

Drown said parents often call because their kids are fighting. Officers always respond, and the situations are not always easy to handle. Drown recalled a scuffle he had a couple years ago with a suspended high school student, who attempted to go to school anyway. Drown caught an elbow in the mouth.

“I have false teeth now,” said Drown, who also sustained three broken ribs.

Drown said police officers in Gorham are treated well and paid well. According to Shepard, a newly hired patrol officer is paid $625 a week, with the salary rising to $821 after six months and $873 after one year. The top pay for a patrol officer is $918.

Drown said some people sometimes complain about officers to Shepard, town council members or Cole.

“Its not easy out here,” he said.

Drown sometimes is called for overtime duty at night. That shift is tougher, with more intoxicated drivers on the roads and drugs are more prevalent at night.

“Most of the criminal element is out there at night,” he said.

Gorham chief eyes police department boost Gorham chief eyes police department boost

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