Maine sheriff's deputy goes off on ME state police

[LittleLebowski]

https://nypost.com/2023/11/01/news/m...eteran-deputy/

A veteran Maine cop who was one of the first to respond to the state’s deadliest mass shooting blasted state police as “utter clowns” for keeping local officers in the dark during the frantic hunt for the gunman who had just killed 18 people.

In a blistering, since-deleted Facebook post, Sgt. Jon Guay of the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office said state police shut out local cops even as huge areas were in lockdown before disturbed gunman Robert Card, 40, was found dead.

“‘Radio silence’ is the best phrase to describe the amount of information the Maine State Police shared with the hundreds of law enforcement officers who responded to assist with this manhunt,” he wrote, according to a screenshot shared by the Bangor Daily News.

“The upper echelons of the Maine State Police Major Crimes Unit and Command Staff are utter clowns and I wouldn’t hire them to manage the morning rush at Dunkin Donuts much less an investigation of this size.”

[Erick Gelhaus]

Not isolated to Maine, that is a real thing. Sadly, a very real thing.

[Coyotesfan97]

The big key is radio traffic. There’s no way to conduct a search of that magnitude and deal with all the radio traffic on a single channel. Multiple agencies multiple channels probably little communication between them. If your dispatchers have communication channels with other agencies it helps. We had PSAP. No clue what it stood for but we get info from dispatch because of it.

Now if they’re purposefully not passing on information fuck those guys.

[TC215]

Local deputy complaining about it on Facebook = clown.

"You know, I was briefed every time I went into the command post. I had a conversation with Maine State Police Command staff. They brought me up to speed," Moen said. "There were some agency head briefings that were held where the state police told us everything they knew about the investigation and where they were at. I was able to update my folks on that, so the communication, I thought, actually flowed pretty well."

Moen said the hard part is when there is no information to give. In this case, he said, the suspect was not providing a trail to indicate he was on the run — using his cell phone, credit cards, vehicle, for example. So the focus became the area near where the car was found at the Miller Park Boat Launch in Lisbon Wednesday night. Moen said he was disappointed to learn about the critical Facebook post of state police and of a published report that suggested state police did not start tracking the suspect for 12 hours after that.

"From my observation, that's completely inaccurate," Moen said. "Within an hour of the incident happening, the suspect's photo had been published and within 90 minutes he had been identified and we were then putting a name to a face and a vehicle. And that information went out to all respondents very quickly. And so there was no waiting on 12 hours to begin tracking him, that was instantaneous. As soon as he was identified, people were up on him trying to track him."

https://www.mainepublic.org/courts-a...heriffs-deputy

[Screwball]

We were getting our intel from the news… there was a little bit that came in during the night, but absolutely nothing until the body was found.

Our intel person told us that MSP was holding it back because of it getting out to the news, possibly tipping the guy off.

[gtmtnbiker98]

If only people really knew how common of a problem this really is. I can write books on this topic, providing examples.

[blues]

If only people really knew how common of a problem this really is. I can write books on this topic, providing examples.

It's bad enough leaking stuff to the press...how about guys you worked with providing info to and working with the targets of your investigation? Don't get me started there.

[Borderland]

Who's in charge? Where I live the county sheriff usually takes charge of something like this and uses other agencies for support.

But maybe every state is different.

[paherne]

I've been to many large mutual aid incidents, been in command posts and been on perimeters, for cop murderers, active killers, natural disasters, etc. Communication is ALWAYS a problem. I'm guessing this sergeant, who responded to the initial events, probably didn't get a lot of rest and maybe has some issues related to scooping up the dead and dying. I'd be willing to wager that this FB post might have been made after finally getting a day off and having a cocktail, or three. I'm sure he wishes he hadn't made it. Debriefing, for all of those involved is probably sorely needed.

FB rants aren't the way to make change.

I've had big problems with some of the incidents I've been to. I addressed those issues with the Incident Commanders and supervisors involved. Some of those conversations were VERY uncomfortable. As in, "Hey, your failure to assign unique callsigns resulted in you losing contact with 2 mutual aid officers and having no idea if they were in need of rescue, dead or otherwise. There's a reason we do this and you got lucky. Your failure to request mutual aid dispatchers/records personnel and log everyone in and out is basic procedure. If anything had happened to those officers, I would have called their Chief, made a complaint against you and MF'ed you in the press. I will be talking with your captain about your agency's need to train lieutenants on ICS management."

This stuff isn't easy.

[feudist]

From the Academy I could see there were some truly dim bulbs above the rank of Captain. Actually, they were the worst possible choices, chosen for the worst possible reasons and short of actually mass murdering entire shifts of officers I don't think they could have done more long term damage.
It took 25 years for the last fruits of that disastrous period to wither away...and by then the department was like an Alzheimer's patient with Type 1 diabetes and stage 4 cancer.
After going to another agency I saw, to my horror, that while the dose of stupidity and arrant buffoonery had been large and acute in the department, the type of fuckery was the norm.