The decision to add a police officer was prompted by a scuffle in the hospital’s emergency room that required the presence of two patrol officers — the town’s only two officers on duty that night — as well as similar reports of incidents at hospitals across the country over the past few months.
A hospital official told Kennebec Journal the new police officer will be a “calming force more than anything.”
The officer Redington-Fairview hires will be assigned to the hospital’s emergency department, where incidents are most likely to occur, according to the report.
The hospital has agreed to pay the officer’s wage and benefit cost, a stipend differential of $2 per hour, a clothing and training allowance and 50 percent of the expense to send the officer to the Maine Criminal Justice Academy for 18 weeks, if necessary.
“[The hospital’s] primary focus is the safety of their employees, the patients and staff,” Skowhegan Police Deputy Chief Donald Bolduc told the newspaper.
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