AUGUSTA, Maine — One week after the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram and Bangor Daily News published their Pulitzer Center-funded investigation into the Maine State Police’s “secretive” practices, the State Police released a lengthy rebuttal.
The papers’ report alleges officer misdeeds are kept secret, which “defies the intent of the state law that makes discipline records public, according to those who helped craft the statute 30 years ago,” reporter Callie Ferguson, Matt Byrne, and Erin Rhoda wrote.
Click here to read the report in the Press Herald.
Maine State Police Col. John Cote “set the record straight” on Monday in a letter to media outlets and in a sit-down interview with NEWS CENTER Maine's Hannah Dineen.
“The Maine State Police does not hide wrongdoing and does not choose to keep certain information related to discipline secret. We follow longstanding laws related to personnel investigation and records related to all state employees that have been implemented and refined across time,” Cote wrote.
“We're always looking for ways to improve and evaluate ourselves. But I think in this case it's clearly law,” Cote told NEWS CENTER Maine.
The law he's referring to, Title 5, Section 7070, covers personnel records and allows that cases of 'confirmed misconduct' be public records but does not specify how detailed those records must be.
According to Cote, the State Police's interpretation of the law is that it does not authorize the release of investigation details.
“...Getting into the narrative about the investigation process is not allowed in our interpretation of the law for our final discipline. It's pretty short. This was the finding. This is the action that they were alleged to have done. And this is the discipline that is recommended and being proposed.”
In response to Cote's statement, BDN reporter Erin Rhonda told NEWS CENTER Maine on Monday:
"In his statement, the colonel is saying what he also told us and that we included in our stories: He’s saying that the Maine State Police follows the law when it comes to releasing discipline records. But just because the law doesn’t require the police to release details of misconduct doesn’t mean it can’t release those details. Thirty years ago when lawmakers debated what to keep public and what to make confidential, they decided to keep discipline records public, so that the public could know about officer misbehavior. They believed that was the public’s right. Many other police agencies in Maine make this information public for the sake of transparency, and also so other officers can know what is and isn’t acceptable. In the end, this isn’t about police, it’s about public access to information about the conduct of those employed in the public trust. Whether people are municipal employees or state police officers, they will make errors and act in ways that the public deserves to know about."
The papers report that of 208 internal affairs investigations in the past six years, allegations were found to be true in 65 cases—“but the misconduct is kept hidden in all but a small number,” they said. According to discipline records, the papers obtained as part of their investigation, just seven cases revealed information about the officers’ alleged misconduct.
When asked in our interview why State Police do not report details of investigations as thoroughly as other Maine Police Departments, Cote said the State Police legal team would be better equipped to answer that question.
“When we present the request and present our records that are relevant to that request, it really is our staff attorney and attorney from the Bureau of Human Resources that determine the exact content of our response.”
Still, Cote told us that State Police are “one of the few agencies that I'm aware of that hold our people accountable both when they're on duty and off duty.”
“We don’t make excuses for our mistakes, but we do want you to know that we try to learn from each one, so they are not repeated,” Cote wrote in his letter.
Cote ended his letter by saying he “firmly believe[s]” the state police’s “failures are rare.” In person, he told us that he knows the State Police have a legacy that is held to the highest standard, “and we are not going to be the generation that messes that up.”
Cote’s full statement:
Watch Hannah Dineen's full interview with Col. Cote below: