Sergeant Travis Ford works for the Rockport Police Department. He has been a sergeant for six years and a patrol officer for the Rockport PD for 15 years. Penbaypilot.com rode with him on a rainy Saturday, May 17, covering most of the Rockport area.

PBP: What’s it like being a police officer for Rockport?

“You think you’re in a small town and you’re just going to see small problems, little things that go on throughout your day, but you never know what’s going to come over that radio, or when that phone rings what you’re going to end with. It can be a quiet day like I’m enjoying right now, in just seconds the phone rings and your whole day changes.”

PBP: I would think on a rainy day you would see more of an incidence of car accidents.

“There’s what happens most of the time and then there’s the part that I like about this job, it’s not your typical nine to five. You have a very wide range of things you take care of. A wide range of people you work with. It makes it interesting and I think that’s why I’ve stayed with it for so long.

PBP: How big is your patrol area?

“I‘m not sure on square miles, but we cover Route 1 from Hannaford to Glen Cove, Route 17 to the Hope line, and then we cover to the Rockland line over by Tolman Pond Market on Route 90. It’s a good-size area. We have a high school and an elementary school, Ashwood Waldorf School and Riley School. Harbor Schools of Maine for boys is over on Route 17, several churches, the hospital for the whole area is in our coverage. We have a rec. center, a YMCA, Maine Media Workshops, the Samoset Resort — we have plenty to keep us busy.

PBP: When you receive a lot of calls, how do you prioritize them?

“We do have to prioritize because we obviously have to take the most important call first. If someone’s life is in danger or property is in danger that would go ahead of, say, a parking problem or routine traffic stops. If there’s something more important we have to respond to first we’ll ask for assistance. We have a good relationship with the towns on both sides of us, as well as the sheriff’s department. And it’s not that one call is more important then another, but it’s where it falls on that priority level. Everything is important and you find that out very quickly in law enforcement.” 

“Somebody who has a barking dog next to their house, to them that’s a very important deal and you have to treat it as such. To you or someone else, it’s like well, it’s only 9 o’clock at night, it doesn’t seem like a big deal when you’re dealing with drugs and people who are drinking and driving, but to that person and the people who live on that street, that’s a problem to them and they want it taken care of and that’s what we’re paid to do. You have to take that problem and you have to take care of it as quickly as you would any other complaint you receive.”

PBP: What’s the most interesting part of your job?

“Drug enforcement, OUI enforcement, I find pretty interesting. You get a call that there’s an erratic vehicle that’s driving too fast, or too slow, weaving and you check on it.

We get quite a few of these calls and it turns out to be somebody who’s not paying attention. And then there are times when you investigate it further and you ultimately make an arrest for OUI or drugs. That’s pretty satisfying to me as a police officer that you’ve taken somebody off the road who could have injured somebody or themselves, somebody who was a menace to the public off the road.

Where we have some of the busiest roads in the county running through Rockport we do get a lot of erratic vehicle complaints. And we check them all, if we can and we’re in the area. If we can’t and they’re headed for Rockland, we let Rockland know. Towards Warren, we let county know, whoever may be on the other end and can try to catch up to them. When I roll up on a car and I witness erratic driving, then yes, I have probable cause to make a traffic stop.”

PBP: Regardless of what you are doing, you are out there; you’re visible, people see you and they know you’re on the job.

“There are certain things I need to do before I start the shift. I need to check the log and see what has happened before me; I check the car and get out on the road. Sometimes there’s something I need to do, but after that I have the freedom to patrol however I want. I might go over and check the hospital, run radar for traffic enforcement; I can wash the car out in front of the station.

Last weekend it was sunny and beautiful out and I decided to wash the car and no less than five different people stopped to ask questions. Three people asked for directions, two or three had questions about the car, or the town office or the harbor. Everything we do we’re in the public eye.

PBP: Everybody has a cell phone. Do you get five calls instead of one, 10 calls instead of one about something?

“Yes, we have some serious accidents in Rockport. Route 17 for example is 55 mph, it’s kind of wide and flat, but there are some bad spots. There are a lot of businesses and intersections so we’ve had some pretty serious accident along there. There’s a lot of traffic flow passing by an accident and you get 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 calls on a single accident. Dispatch will let us know that they have just received another call; we’ve just received another call.

That in your mind says OK, this is going to be a doozy when I get there, so you start preparing mentally, before you get to the accident scene what you’re going to do. The first concern is safety. If no one is injured you let dispatch know immediately so they’re not waiting to see who maybe they need to send. You determine who you’re going to need, what kind of help you’re going to need, and where you’re going to put your vehicle to close down that lane so you’re not putting other people in danger.”

PBP:  You’re human, you have feelings. What is heartbreaking about your job?

“Kids and when you’re dealing with small children because I have kids. Seeing people who are involved with drugs and they’re addicted and it’s kind of a hopeless road for them. You might run into the same person time after time and you see them getting worse.

You can see the toll it’s taking on their body and their minds and their families. That’s hard to watch knowing there’s not a whole lot you can do. We’re in the law enforcement profession so we’re trying to get drugs off the street; we’re making arrests when they’re doing these things. They are stealing because they need drug money and there is a lot of crime committed because they need drugs.

It’s heartbreaking because sometimes you’ll have young adults 17, 18, 19 years-old and they’re an addict and that’s really hard to see.”   

“Death notifications are never easy. It might be something in your area or out of state and that police department contacts you and says a relative of a person killed lives in Rockport and you need to make notification. You go and knock on the door and there’s no easy way to tell someone that someone they maybe just talked to the day before, a member of their close family has been killed. That’s never easy. You have to be there and show compassion.

If a police officer came to my door and said your mother has just been killed, I wouldn’t want them to say, OK, and just walk away. I would want some answers, whom to call, how it happened, any particulars they could give me and do it in a way that is compassionate and helpful.

PBP: Is domestic violence on the rise? In your opinion, has it leveled out and declining?

“Actually I think it’s about the same and maybe even declining a little bit. I can definitely say it is not on the rise. People are more aware of it, they’re more apt to report it and get involved if they hear the neighbors going at it rather then close the window. I believe people are more apt to take it much more seriously. I think education is helping to stem it, but unfortunately it still goes on. It’s a call we dread to get and I think we have at least one a week.

I had one last Tuesday and whether it be verbal or physical they can all turn serious. There’s a funeral scheduled in a few days for a New Hampshire police officer who was killed when he responded to a domestic call. We take them very seriously. You never know what you’re going to walk into and who is involved. Sometimes there are weapons involved and you need to know as much as you can before you walk into that situation. They can turn deadly.”

PBP: You carry a Taser. Is it a deterrent to escalating force and have you ever used it?

“I have not had an occasion to use it. I have taken it out of its holster a couple of times in preparation to use it, but the person I was warning to comply, complied so I didn’t have to employ it. People have pointed to it and asked, is that a Taser? I think everybody knows what a Taser is. And in think everybody knows what it’s going to do and they don’t want to mess with it. I think it’s effective to diffuse a situation.

I don’t want a situation to escalate; I want to end it in a peaceful manner. There was a situation where somebody said one time come and get me. They wanted to fight. And what stopped them from following through was the Taser. I think it’s an effective tool for law enforcement.”

PBP: When you make traffic stops, what do like to see the driver do?

“Definitely don’t get out of the car. That makes us nervous. It’s better that someone stays inside their vehicle, puts their window down and keep their hands on the wheel and in plain sight. They should wait for us to ask to see their paperwork, instead of reaching quickly for something because we don’t know what you’re reaching for. Some people don’t like the idea of a spotlight shining into their back window. It’s blinding to them, but they need to put themselves in our position. It’s 1 a.m. and you’ve just stopped a vehicle with four or five people in it, you want to see what’s in that car. We have a spotlight, we have the take-down lights on and we have our flashlight. The whole area is lit up. It’s safer for us and it’s safer for them.”

Sergeant Ford works four 10-hour shifts on for the Rockport Police Department and then takes three days off.

What amazed this reporter the most was how astute Ford was at reading inspection and license plate stickers from a quarter mile away. He could even tell you what state a car was from by the placement of an inspection sticker.