Town of Mechanic Falls Annual Report 2019-2020

Town of Mechanic Falls Annual Report 2019-2020

Police Department

The Mechanic Falls Police Department was extremely busy in the year that was 2019. We handled 3590 calls for service. That was up approximately 400 calls from 2018. We had 194 arrests and covered 114 traffic crashes. Your Police Officers handled 1386 traffic violations in the town. Only 271 of those traffic stops resulted in a citation being issued. Officers have been very lenient and have exercised judgement in determining whether to issue a summons or a warning in these matters. Generally speaking, we have a record of warnings and people are more than likely to get ticketed if stopped a second time for the same offense or repeated general disregard for the traffic laws. I want to take the time to WARN citizens about scams with an emphasis on PHONE SCAMS. There are many bad people out there in the world who are looking to pray on trusting and caring people. Often times these scams are directed at the elderly population. At this time a few of the most popular scams are the callers(scammers) calling and stating that they are from the IRS, Social Security Administration, FBI, … They will tell you that you are some-how involved or connected to all sorts of crimes or non- payments etc. They will tell you that you need to wire them money or purchase gift cards, debit cards or some other form of payment or they will come to your house and arrest you. I can assure you that agencies are not going to call you and make those threats over the phone. If you are to be arrested sending money will not get you out of it. Furthermore, we will be knocking on your door and identifying ourselves as law enforcement. These criminals work in teams. They will have another agent or supervisor call and talk to you to further the scam. They will even give you a number to call in to them and they will answer with a greeting like they are from the agency that they told you they were from. DO NOT FALL FOR THIS. We have citizens who have lost thousands and thousands of dollars. Some of them it has been their life savings. Another popular scam is to call usually but not always in the middle of the night and say that they are your grandchild. Usually they have some knowledge and will identify by name. They will say that they are in trouble and need money to keep from going to or to get out of jail or to pay for an emergency medical situation. They will ask you not to tell their parents. They may even beg you and sound as if they are crying. DO NOT SEND the money without checking first. I know this first hand as my mom received this call and wisely called me to check. Before I could get back to her, they had called back and fortunately my son was standing in her living room visiting. She probably would have paid had she not heard me speaking of this before. She was scared for my son. These people play on emotions. If you ever get one of these calls please check with the Mechanic Falls Police Department before giving your personal information or sending them any money. We are often aware of current scams and can help put your mind at ease. I assisted a citizen recently and was able to stop them from making a huge mistake. They had already given out personal information but checked with me before going further. After 3 calls to the false Social Security Administration the subjects blocked my number. The majority of these scams originate in a foreign country. They are good at what they do and make millions of dollars every year. Please do not give them your money or information. The last one I want to enlighten you about is the contest that you have won. They tell you that you have won hundreds of thousands of dollars or maybe even millions. Then they say that you have to pay a certain amount of money for various reasons in order for them to give you your big payout. When you have won a contest/drawing you do not have to pay to collect. As I have said contact your local police department and ask us about the particular situation. Crimes against people were up by 2 percent over 2018 but the crimes against property was down by 25 percent. I believe that the drop in crime can be attributed to a greater presence of the officers in the community. Being more visible can deter people from stealing or damaging other people’s property. Our newest officer on the department resigned and left the law enforcement field to pursue another career opportunity. At the writing of this address we have a candidate that has completed the majority of the hiring requirements and we hope to be able to introduce a new Patrol Officer in the very near future. I want to close with my usual comment. This is your town and we need you to help us keep it safe. Report suspicious behavior. Lock your doors and put your property away. Do not make yourself an easy victim of crime. Thank you for your support!!

Jeffrey Goss, Chief of Police

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