Sometimes the truth hurts. Just ask Maine State Police Sgt. Michael Edes.

Edes, who works out of the state police Troop B barracks in Gray, found himself in the news twice last week – and neither experience was pleasant.

His first appearance came Tuesday when he responded to a call any officer dreads: a two-car collision on busy Route 100 in New Gloucester that left one 16-year-old boy dead and two other young men seriously injured.

Edes, himself the father of a teenager, noted to reporters at the scene that New Gloucester and neighboring Gray consistently refuse to pay for either their own police department or a dedicated officer from the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office to patrol their busy roads.

Instead, Edes said, both communities look to the already stretched general patrol officers from the state police and sheriff's office to meet all of their law enforcement needs.

"You've got to have routine traffic enforcements in these towns," said a clearly upset Edes. "And unfortunately, these two communities keep voting it down. Shame on them."

He's right. But more on that later.

One day after Edes' remarks hit the airwaves, he was back in the news – this time courtesy of his boss, Maine State Police chief Col. Patrick Fleming. And once again, it stung.

Fleming, in an unusual public rebuke of one of his own troopers, said he "took issue" with Edes' "insensitive" comments at the scene of the accident and apologized to the victim's family and to the communities of Gray and New Gloucester for "the sergeant's personal remarks."

"His remarks were likely made out of frustration, but that is no excuse," Fleming said. "The scene of a tragic crash that took the life of a 16-year-old boy was not the place or the time to voice strong personal opinions about law enforcement coverage."

One question: If Tuesday wasn't the time to sound off about the two towns' refusal to take responsibility for their own law enforcement, then when is?

To fully understand Edes' frustration, you have to go back to last month's town meeting in Gray. One article on the warrant called for adding $145,000 to the municipal budget to fund a dedicated deputy from the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office who would patrol Gray for 40 hours per week.

According to Town Manager Deborah Cabana, only about 75 people – in a town with an estimated population of 7,529 – turned out for the meeting. And when the law-enforcement allocation came up for a vote, all but a handful said "no" – just as they have in past years.

Cabana, who lives in Gray, was one of the few who voted "yes." She did so, she said, because a majority "yes" vote would have triggered a subsequent referendum on the law enforcement question under LD 1 – the state law that requires voter approval of any local spending above a pre-set limit.

"In all honesty, I really wanted to have more than 75 people make that decision," Cabana said. While the measure fell far short of 24-hour police coverage for the town, she added, "it was a start."

That's more than they can say in neighboring New Gloucester, with an estimated population of 5,407. According to Town Manager Sumner Field, it's been years since voters there even considered paying for law enforcement.

Of course, it's not like people in the two towns never call the police.

Last year alone, the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office received 2,833 calls for service from Gray and 1,283 from New Gloucester. And the state police, in a recent presentation to the people of Gray, noted that they fielded 1,891 additional calls from that town in 2008.

In other words, while most towns their size secure themselves with a local police department – or, as they do in Standish (population 9,896), a small contingent of dedicated sheriff's deputies – Gray and New Gloucester remain determined to do it...