People React to Maine Town’s Police Department Closing For Good

It's been coming for weeks and, it has finally arrived. Tuesday, August 20, marks the closure of the Mexico, Maine, Police Department.

Several weeks ago, we told you that this small Maine town of about 2,700 people, had to make the tough decision to change its police department status from active to idle, primarily citing staffing difficulties with the town's police department.

According to WGME 13, a single officer worked the final overnight shift and signed off at 6 a.m. Tuesday. That sign-off officially marks the closure of the Mexico Police Department.

But, what does this mean for the town's public safety moving forward? Well, a couple of things. For starters, if someone in Mexico needs police assistance, one of two things will happen.

Either an officer from Rumford will respond, or dispatchers will send a deputy from the Oxford County Sheriff's Office, though response time could be as much as 45 minutes, according to WGME. As you can imagine, residents of Mexico aren't super-excited about this.

Laddry Dubois, a resident in Mexico, Maine, told WGME,

"Either they're going to send the sheriff, which is 30-45 minutes away, or they'll have to send Rumford. They got to do something."

There were also numerous comments about the situation on Facebook posts from WMTW and WGME.

Some highlighted how "sad" and "horrible" the closing was. Another commenter said it was a "sign of the times," while another highlighted how there have been other local police departments that have closed as well.

According to the Sun Journal, the Dixfield, Maine, Police Department closed back in 2020. The newspaper noted that the Oxford County Sheriff's Office became the official law enforcement agency for that town as it will now be for Mexico.

There have also been a number of other Maine towns that have closed their departments, according to an article from The County, including Washburn, Van Buren and Limestone.