Independent review of Maine State Police response to Lewiston mass shooting released
LEWISTON (WGME) - The Maine State Police response to the Lewiston mass shooting, has now been reviewed by an outside agency. That report from the New England State Police Administrators, or NESPAC, was released Thursday.
NESPAC's review was not an overarching review of the Maine State Police actions, it's a review of a (AAR). The AAR was released in September.
NESPAC's report outlined 21 recommendations for change.
"It's all about moving forward for us," said Maine State Police Colonel William Ross.
The NESPAC report and the AAR are largely similar, calling for changes like more mass casualty training, and developing crime scene protocols. But the NESPAC report goes farther, recommending increased staffing to the department's public information office.
"With one public information officer, this is an extremely difficult thing to do," said Ross. "We have contingencies in place, but they only last for so long."
State police were not directly involved with the shooter. Robert Card, before the shooting. But NESPAC's review still recommended a "behavioral threat assessment program" to prevent similar incidents.
Ross says while state police don't have that program, the state does. It's called the Maine Threat Assessment Group.
"What they do is they make an assessment and then respond back to the group with some type of direction," said Ross.
As for the other recommendations in this report, the police say some recommended changes are already being implemented. They did not provide specifics or a timeline for when any policy changes might be put in place.
