Maine police departments are reportedly hundreds low on new recruits.

In Gardiner, in particular, the town hall has decided to raise the new recruit salary, further burdening the already over-burdened property taxpayers. Gardiner is high on its tax percentage and low on its services. One wonders where all the money is going.

The problem in police recruitment isn’t pay, it’s satisfaction. Society has had to modernize itself, even in rural states such as Maine. New recruits can’t be impressed with existing police officers bragging and giggling about how much mischief they can make for innocent citizens so that they will be liked by their chiefs and district attorneys, who depend on a certain percentage of prosecutions-to-arrests. If their percentages are down, they have to create offenders from their worlds of make-believe.

Gardiner wants to attract new businesses but businesses can’t be impressed with crumbling infrastructure. Gardiner will grow when Gardiner’s leaders can modernize their thinking and consider what businesses and families need to be comfortable.

Scott Tenney
Gardiner