Maine Forest Rangers have been threatened, assaulted, held at gunpoint and, in one case, shot and wounded, doing their jobs. Yet, they are the only law enforcement officers in the state who are not permitted to carry a firearm.
Sen. Gary Plummer, a Republican from Windham, asked his colleagues to think about the Maine Law Enforcement Officers’ Memorial next to the State House. It contains the names of 78 law enforcement officers who’ve been killed in the line of duty. “Do we want to wait ’til we see the name of a ranger on that wall before we act?” Plummer asked colleagues. “I hope we don’t. Thank you, Mr. President.”
In addition to arming rangers, the bill contains a training requirement of 64 hours worth of firearms classroom instruction, firing range practice and education in the use of force. But most of it would be spent at target practice actually handling weapons. And Sen. Stan Gerzofsky, a Democrat from Freeport, doesn’t think that’s appropriate or sufficient. He says living and working as they do in Maine, most of the state’s 74 forest rangers probably already know how to shoot a gun.
But Gerzofsky fears arming rangers will mean they’ll get called as backup for law enforcement to handle dangerous situations that are unfamiliar. “We don’t all know how to de-escalate a situation that might be domestic violence that these rangers are now going to be asked to back people up on,” Gerzofsky said. “We don’t all know how, without training, to pull a drunk out of a car without causing a lot of problems and getting yourself shot.”
Gerzofsky says if rangers are going to be asked to act like cops, they should be trained at Maine’s Criminal Justice Academy the same way cops are. Democratic Sen. David Dutremble points out that rangers already receive more training than some law enforcement officers who are currently carrying sidearms.
From The Maine Public Broadcasting Network: https://www.mpbn.net/Home/tabid/36/ctl/ViewItem/mid/5347/ItemId/32766/Default.aspx