Former Lewiston Police Chief Michael Bussiere does not own a 10-gallon hat or a bolo tie.
Yet he doesn’t miss shoveling snow, and his blood has thinned considerably since he left Central Maine for the warmer climes of the Lone Star State.
Bussiere, who last summer assumed a command-level position at the Richardson Police Department in the densely populated Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, area, told the Sun Journal recently that he is keeping busy helping oversee construction of a $39 million police station and the everyday workings of a 300-employee police department.
Aside from the occasional ride-alongs with patrol officers, Bussiere passes most of his time performing administrative duties in the burgeoning Dallas suburb that has more than triple the population of Lewiston and is still sprawling. With that population comes 10-lane highways and traffic unimaginable to a Mainer, he said.
“You’d have to see it to believe it,” he said.
He returned to Maine for a brief visit with family over the Thanksgiving holiday.
“The cold weather, it strikes you pretty quickly when you get up there,” he said.
By contrast, he and his new co-workers were dressed in short sleeves at a recent Christmas party in Richardson, where the temperature was a balmy 73 degrees, he said.
“I was feeling for you guys,” he said.
Besides the weather, criminal laws are different in Texas from Maine, Bussiere said. And Texas law enforcement officers have greater authority to make arrests than in Maine, he said.
“You can get arrested for almost anything down in Texas,” he said. “Most traffic violations in Maine are arrestable offenses in Texas.”
That said, his officers use discretion in deciding when to exercise their authority, he added.
Another difference is the number of volunteers (roughly 1,000) who help out at his police department, Bussiere said. During National Night Out — an event to raise awareness about community policing — in Richardson, 180 block parties were held to celebrate. Officers spread out across the community in an effort to connect with as many residents as possible, he said.
In Lewiston, he established the Community Resource Team, which is said to have vastly improved relations between police and the community they serve.
Bussiere worked as a sworn officer at the Lewiston Police Department for 26 years, seven as chief. He was credited for a sharp decline in the city’s crime rate and a rise in its overall image. His “hot spot” policing strategy, which had local officers teaming with other agencies to target criminals, earned him accolades and federal grants.
He was tapped for top cop in Lewiston after a national search; his successor will undergo a similarly rigorous selection process.
On Bussiere’s last day in his Lewiston job, he learned about five Dallas police officers shot dead and nine wounded in a sniper attack.
The community’s response toward law enforcement was remarkable and continues to this day, he said.
“I can’t even begin to describe the huge outpouring of support that we received,” he said. “It was incredible.”
When he’s on the job, usually in uniform, strangers will walk up to him and thank him for his service.
After the Dallas shootings, “I think people started to realize, to some degree, maybe we take law enforcement for granted and we shouldn’t.”
But that’s a “two-way street,” he said. Police need to serve their communities well to be appreciated.
“That’s what it’s all about.”
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