Priorities

🎯 Our Priorities for Knox County

A safe community requires a forward-thinking, proactive approach to law enforcement. As your Sheriff, my platform is built on modernizing our infrastructure, protecting your hard-earned tax dollars, and ensuring that our services are accessible and equitable for every single resident.

Here is our strategic plan to keep Knox County safe, stable, and moving forward.

🤝 Community-First Public Safety & Support

Law enforcement must look beyond just response times; we must actively work to prevent crises before they happen.

📈 Expanding Diversionary Programs: I am committed to strengthening partnerships with mental health professionals and addiction treatment resources. By diverting individuals facing mental health crises or substance use disorders into appropriate treatment paths, we lower field interactions and recidivism, creating a resilient community.

🏥 Investing in Staff Wellness & Retention: Maintaining a fully staffed department during a national law enforcement workforce crisis is one of our greatest achievements. I will continue to prioritize officer mental health, professional development, and supportive workplace culture to ensure our deputies remain the highest-caliber public servants in the state.

💰 Fiscal Responsibility & Transparency

As a lifelong resident, I know the financial pressures facing Midcoast families. Your tax dollars must be managed with absolute care.

⚖️ Smart Budgeting: I approach the county public safety budget with a guardian mindset. We look for every opportunity to maximize operational efficiency, eliminate waste, and secure state or federal grants to offset costs before asking local taxpayers to foot the bill.

📊 Data-Driven Operations: We utilize clear, metric-driven deployments to ensure equipment, patrol routes, and staff hours are utilized effectively where they are needed most, ensuring transparent accountability for every dollar spent.

🗺️ Inclusive Protection Across All 18 Towns & Territories

Knox County’s unique geography means a one-size-fits-all approach to policing does not work. We tailor our services to the distinct needs of our neighbors.

🚜  Support for Rural Inland Towns: We maintain strong, visible patrol presence across our inland farming and residential communities like Union, Washington, and Hope, ensuring rapid emergency response times and proactive property protection.

⚓ Unique Coastal Considerations: I am committed to a dual-focused approach for our coastal regions. For communities that rely on the Sheriff’s Office as their primary law enforcement provider, I will ensure dependable, 24/7 patrol presence and rapid emergency response. For municipalities with their own police departments, I will prioritize seamless mutual aid partnerships to help manage seasonal population surges and safeguard our shared waterfront security.

⛴️ Dedicated Island Advocacy: Residents on Vinalhaven, North Haven, and Isle au Haut face distinct emergency transit and public safety hurdles. I will continue to dedicate specific operational focus to ensure our island communities have consistent, reliable communication and rapid support from the Sheriff’s Office.