Crime & Public Safety

For the past several years the Town of Lubec has contracted with the Washington County Sheriff's Department for additional law enforcement coverage. The most recent contract was approved by voters during the August 2011 annual meeting for the amount of $173,860.

After 27 years as a minimum to medium security prison, Down East Correctional Facility in Machiasport officially changed to a minimum security prison in June of this year. The difference will affect the type of inmate housed at the prison.

Three senior officials of Cooke Aquaculture, the largest producer of farmed salmon in eastern North America, and one of its subsidiary companies are being charged with releasing a banned pesticide used to treat salmon for sea lice into area waters, which ended up killing perhaps 1,000 or more...

An ongoing criminal investigation into whether the owner of a yacht seized by federal agents while it was aboard a freighter in Eastport was trying to illegally ship guns and ammunition out of the county should be completed within 90 days.

The former chief of the Pleasant Point Police Department pled guilty on Wednesday, April 6, in Washington County Superior Court to a felony charge of theft by unauthorized taking as well as a misdemeanor of misuse of entrusted funds, involving $33,244.50.

The nature of crime in Washington County is changing, and this has the county's sheriff, Donnie Smith, alarmed. "We've had four home invasions since December. That's new and it's troubling." He notes that this change is something being seen across the state, not just Washington County.