PIPD truck unmarked, not necessarily undercover
Why would the Presque Isle Police Department want people to know what their unmarked vehicle looks like?
A few people were wondering that, as well as whether the money might have been better spent on other public investments, after police chief Matt Irwin posted a photo of the department’s relatively new, $24,000 unmarked truck on Facebook. Isn’t the point of an unmarked police vehicle for law enforcement to remain “undercover”?
Not quite, Irwin argued. “I don’t view the truck as ‘undercover’ as much as it’s simply unmarked,” he said. Undercover “implies we are operating in a manner so as to deceive criminals regarding our identity.”
The unmarked truck is helpful “with an occasional surveillance or when searching for someone on the run,” but its main purpose is traffic safety, Irwin said.
After all, crime rates in Presque Isle, Aroostook County and Maine are well below the national average, while the rate of motor vehicle crash deaths in T he County is higher than the national average.
Presque Isle is also one of those communities where U.S. Route 1 serves as an all-purpose corridor, with rural sections at 55 miles per hour and 25 miles per hour through the four-lane Main Street downtown onto a retail shopping district marked by big box stores.
“If you are local you know that law enforcement is spread pretty thin in northern Maine, and secondly, U.S. Route 1 in Presque Isle is oftentimes referred to as the Presque Isle raceway,” Irwin wrote on Facebook, explaining why he posted a photo of the truck for the department’s 11,000-plus followers to see.
“When the public knows we have unmarked vehicles,” he continued, “they may think twice or use a little caution before speeding through town. Oftentimes it doesn’t work, but for some it does, and we need every advantage we can get to slow traffic down.”
