IN THE CITY
By Chief Matt Irwin
The month of April represents an opportunity to shed light on a few topics of great community importance. First, April has been designated national Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Month as well as national Sexual Assault Awareness Month.I’ve personally spent 16 years of my life investigating these terrible incidents. Both issues are toxic to a civilized society and what’s worse is these issues remain difficult subjects to address in a public forum. Nothing silences a good conversation more than to begin discussing the spiral fracture to an infant’s femur all because he/she soiled their diaper, or the cigarette burns received by a child who got a poor grade in school … equally conversation stopping is the little boy or girl who is being molested by a family member or the abused wife who is forced to submit to an abusive husband and then there’s the good ole’ fashioned date rape!
These are real issues in this community, in this county, and in this state. Unless people in the community take these issues seriously, talk about them and get involved our sons, daughters, wives, and moms will continue to be victimized at an alarming rate.
I personally want to thank the staffs at both the Aroostook Mental Health Center (AMHC) and the Office of Child and Family Services (OCFS) for their commitment to victims of sexual violence and child abuse, respectively. Their caseloads are too large and staff’s are too small; these are truly people on the front lines dealing with some of the most hideous crimes in any community. All of our law enforcement personnel and prosecutors should also be proud of the work they do toward ending this scourge.
On a lighter note, last week was designated as “National Telecommunicator Week” in honor of all our emergency services dispatchers and recognition of their difficult job.
Emergency communications personnel are often under-appreciated and over worked. They face as much stress as law enforcement personnel and live through much of the same violence and tragedy; but fail to receive adequate recognition. They are the lifeline to our patrol officers and in so many ways, keep our officers safe. In the case of the Presque Isle Police Department’s dispatchers, they all contribute to this department beyond what is expected of them and I appreciate you all every day, thank you.
Chief Matthew J. Irwin of the Presque Isle Police Department can be reached at 764-2535 or via e-mail at mirwin@presqueisleme.us.
