By Daniel Kool
Portland Press Herald, Maine
AUGUSTA, Maine — A coalition of state police agencies recommends that the Maine State Police develop a plan for handling mass casualty incidents, enact training to limit self-deployment by local law enforcement agencies, and work to strengthen its organization and release of information to the public.
The recommendations came in an analysis of the state police’s after-action review of the Lewiston mass shooting last year. At the time, and in the months since, the agency’s response to and investigation of the shooting, which left 18 dead and 13 wounded, has been heavily scrutinized.
The New England State Police Administrators Conference reviewed MSP’s report at the request of state police Col. William Ross, according to the document, which was released by the Maine Department of Public Safety Thursday. State police agencies in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Vermont contributed to the review.
The conference’s report praised parts of the state police’s after-action review, including the “extremely effective” utilization of the department’s Incident Management Assistance Team, which “appears to have coordinated everything outside of tactical operations.”
It also noted that the New Hampshire and Massachusetts state police departments quickly provided assistance to Maine State Police.
But the conference also highlighted several areas for improvement in the state police response and internal review, noting details that appeared to be missing or inadequate.
The conference argues that there were multiple points in the state police’s review that suggest changes in policy and procedure but do not sufficiently elaborate upon them. It also argues that the report should have included more discussion of financial considerations, record-keeping and the release of information during the agency’s response.
In addition to releasing the interstate conference’s original review, the Maine State Police issued a point-by-point response to many of its criticisms and suggestions to include more details.
In response to the conference’s suggestion that the state police further review the role of its public information officer, MSP argued that they “provided timely and comprehensive communications.”
The review also criticized the scale of self-deployments by other agencies, which “resulted in lack of accountability and duplicate work being conducted,” and ultimately “became more of a liability than an asset,” the conference said.
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The review makes several claims of missing or insufficient information in the after-action report, including details about what happened before the shooting.
In response, the Maine State Police broadly claims that such information was deliberately excluded because it concerned other law enforcement and emergency response agencies but did not directly relate to the state police. The state police further responded that it did not have any contact with shooter Robert Card prior to the shootings.
The conference also suggested that Maine State Police further review its policies relating to the “timely and accurate death notification” to victims’ next of kin.
In its response, MSP said people were “unofficially” notified of their loved ones’ deaths by family and friends before the police were able to provide them a formal notice.
“The Maine State Police see and feel this recommendation personally and remain committed to making the necessary adjustments for notifying family members as early as possible,” the agency said, though it did not elaborate on what those adjustments might be.
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