PARIS — In an emotionally charged meeting Monday night, the Select Board shelved long-standing discussions about restructuring or disbanding the Paris Police Department — at least for the coming fiscal year.
The board also voted Monday to send the department’s budget to voters at the annual town meeting in June.
Some who attended, including Budget Committee member and Paris Hill resident Robert Jewell, urged the town to explore alternatives to the Police Department and questioned the long‑term feasibility of continuing to operate it.
According to minutes from the Paris Budget Committee’s meeting April 7, Jewell outlined his efforts to investigate alternatives to the department.
Jewell told the Budget Committee that Oxford County Administrator Zane Loper estimated it would cost $695,950 to provide 12 months of police coverage through the Oxford County Sheriff’s Office, with four 24‑hour officers.
He also said informal talks between Paris and the Sheriff’s Office, as well as the Oxford Police Department, about restructuring the department have been underway since July 2025, according to coverage in the Sun Journal.
Paris Town Manager Natalie Andrews said in an email that at the 2025 town meeting, the Police Department requested an operational budget of $1,347,133.
Voters approved a reduced budget of $1,150,000, which required the department to cut staffing to stay within the appropriation.
For the 2026 town meeting, the department submitted an even lower operational budget of $1,090,719.45 to the Budget Committee — below the funding level previously set by voters.
The discussions prompted emotional responses.
Selectman Scott Buffington said the April 7 meeting grew “tense.” The discussion — and the emotion — returned Monday night.
Paris resident Lisa Billings Palmer said the Police Department is a vital part of the community.
“We need to have a sense of community and communication with our police department,” she said. “We need to have some solidarity here.”
As the conversation continued, Selectman Robert Ripley said, “I would prefer to keep our own Paris Police Department, but it has to be affordable and we have to be able to afford what we want and need.”
In the same discussion, Jewell said: “I believe in presenting facts, then people make decisions based on the facts. However, you need to understand, I’m not for or against. I made a comment in the Budget Committee meeting because I wanted to have a discussion.”
According to Jewell, talks with the Sheriff’s Office led him to believe that Paris could get by with “four, maybe five” officers, eliminating current overheads such as detectives, uniforms and fuel costs.
He also said that police union negotiations were driving up the department’s budgets.
“I just think it’s important that when we make a recommendation, we address it on the facts and what we see coming down the road. It’s not going to get any cheaper. It isn’t. In fact, we know it’s going to get higher. And we also know that statewide, the police unions that go in have 25 to 30 percent every single time to start,” Jewell said.
“Looking down the road, my concern for the taxpayer is that, at some point, (the department) becomes unsustainable.”
Budget Committee member Janet Jamison said that since the 2025 town meeting, at which Town Manager Andrews was asked by voters to investigate alternatives to the Police Department, the town has not made a serious effort to consider alternatives to the department.
“Natalie (Andrews) was given the direction to look for other alternatives to the Paris Police Department,” Jamison said. “Now, I never saw a report come out of there, so we never got what we asked for in the first place.”
Most in attendance agreed that it was too late in the budget process to make substantial changes to the Police Department’s budget for the coming year.
“This (discussion) should have happened way before the budget meeting happened,” Buffington said. “What happened last week at the budget meeting should never have happened.”
Jamison said the Budget Committee only agreed to this year’s police department budget because it was “too late” to make any changes.
But, according to Andrews, the emotional debate surrounding the Police Department will likely resurface every year.
“I mean, I don’t think it’s anything you ever put to bed,” Andrews said. “I’m just talking about part of the budget process, in my opinion, and the citizens will demand it like they did last year.”
Jamison also said rising Police Department costs are not going to “go away,” and the conversation is likely to return.
“Costs are going to keep rising, and we have to figure out if we truly can afford our own private police department, because we don’t have the resources that Oxford and Norway have,” Jamison said.
“So when I sit here and speak about this, it’s not that I have anything against the Paris Police Department. I’m thinking about the people I’ve seen come through the voting booth that are wearing rags, and I wonder how they afford their food, let alone their taxes. Those are the people I speak for.”
Selectman Steve Cronce said he supported consolidating departments to cover Oxford, Norway and Paris. He noted that the towns already share several services, including retail centers such as Walmart, interlocal solid waste agreements and ambulance services.
“We need each other. Paris needs Norway, Norway needs Paris, and Oxford needs both towns. We all need each other,” Cronce said. “And I think it’s a disservice to look only at the Sheriff’s Office as the alternative for the Police Department. I don’t think we’re looking far enough. I don’t think we’re doing enough research.”
But that possibility is apparently off the table. Andrews said the chiefs of the Norway and Oxford police departments told the town in a recent letter that they had “no interest” in forming a multitown response.
“I’m saying the townspeople voted, after a tense town meeting, for the Police Department,” Chief Mike Ward of the Paris Police Department said. “They gave us the budget number. We hit the number. Voters approved it. I don’t know why we’re doing this again.”
