Staff Writer

Police Officer Joshua Robbins has learned there is no typical night in Old Orchard Beach.

Quiet winter nights on patrol disappear as the town’s population increases tenfold in the summer and brings thousands of visitors for sunny days at the beach and festive nights on the town. Calls, Robbins says, range from lost children to shoplifting complaints to assaults. 

“Nothing surprises me anymore,” he says.

The Old Orchard Beach Police Department puts more than 20 full-time officers and nearly 40 reserve officers on the streets each summer. During the past two decades, officers have watched downtown transform from a tough environment to a place for families, says Lt. Tim DeLuca.

“I want our officers to be ambassadors,” DeLuca says.

6:45 p.m. Friday

Robbins pulls out of the parking lot of the Old Orchard Beach Police Department on E. Emerson Cummings Boulevard and heads downtown. On this Friday night, he patrols zone two of the three zones across Old Orchard Beach. Until his shift ends at midnight, Robbins will patrol downtown streets and answer calls for service.

Robbins says there are two sides to his job – proactive and reactive. The proactive aspect of his job includes looking for vehicle moving violations and keeping an eye on what’s going on around town. The reactive aspect involves answering calls from dispatch. His first call of the night was to pick up a kitten someone found.

“That’s one of the things I love about this job. There’s so much variety of interactions you have with the public,” he says. “Every day is different. Some nights are boring, but very few.”

The early evening hours in Old Orchard Beach are often quieter than hours later when the bars close and people stop to pick up food on their way home, Robbins says. As he pulls down Old Orchard Street to answer a parking question, families throng around benches to eat fried dough and pizza.

“By 9:30 or 10 p.m. things start to happen,” Robbins says.

Robbins says there is a definite switch in the types of calls he receives throughout the evening. During the day, officers often deal with animal and parking complaints, lost children and shoplifting. As families head home from the beach and adults head to the bars, calls for fights, domestic violence and crimes against people pick up, he says.

Robbins says the presence of police officers in the crowd goes a long way to maintaining control.

“The presence of a uniform is a huge deterrent,” he says.

7:05 p.m.

Robbins makes a slow loop around downtown, his windows open to better hear what is happening. He slows his cruiser to say hello to a young girl eating an ice cream cone and frantically waving in his direction. He got to know the girl, a town resident, when he helped her during a call last winter. He often runs into her around town and she is always eager to say hello to “her police officer,” he says.

“One of the things I love about this time of day in Old Orchard is the smell of the campfires,” he says.

As he maneuvers through traffic, Robbins says he is constantly checking passing cars for valid registration and inspection stickers, buckled seatbelts and proper operation.

“You’re also watching people. You’re watching what’s in their hands,” he says.

7:11 p.m.

Robbins does a quick turn and pulls up beside a group of four men walking toward the beach. Two are holding red plastic cups, which he suspects contain alcohol. When he stops people for drinking in public, Robbins makes them dump their drink and runs their names to check for warrants.

After two men dump beer into the grass alongside the road, Robbins explains to them that it is illegal to drink alcohol in public. He warns them for their behavior and they continue to the beach.

7:19 a.m.

A call comes across the radio asking officers to keep an eye out for suspect in a theft from MacDonald’s Garage. A dispatcher says the suspect may have headed toward Memorial Park. Robbins swings his cruiser alongside the park, driving slowly as he scans the area for the suspect, who is known to police.

Minutes later, he pulls into the parking lot of a stand of cottages two doors down from MacDonald’s Garage.

7:23 p.m.

As he pulls through the parking lot, Robbins quickly reverses direction and pulls alongside another cruiser as an officer brings the suspect out of a cottage. The man is quickly handcuffed and put in the back of a cruiser while Robbins helps pick up prescription pills the man threw on the ground. The suspect yells obscenities from the back seat as officers talk to witnesses.

7:36 p.m.

Robbins heads over to MacDonald’s Garage to collect a statement from employees. They say the suspect left the store with a package of cheese. His attempt to take a candy bar was unsuccessful, they tell Robbins.

Robbins and another officer spend a few minutes walking through the woods between the cabin and the garage in search of the cheese. They were not able to find it and Robbins says the suspect likely tossed it into bushes. Robbins heads back to his patrol while the officer continues to search the area.

8:05 p.m.

Robbins, who has been a full time officer for two years, started his career in law enforcement as a reserve officer. He had worked as a graphic designer and photographer for 13 years before he met Lt. Tim DeLuca through pistol shooting competitions.

“He asked if I ever thought about law enforcement,” he says. “I was ready for a career change.”

Robbins soon went on a ride along with DeLuca. It was a quiet night and nothing happened, Robbins says.

“He looked at me at the end and said ‘are you hooked?’ I said yes,” Robbins says. “It’s every little boy’s dream.”

Robbins became a reserve officer for the “very rainy” summer of 2009 and has been with the department since.

8:10 p.m.

Robbins stops his car on West Grand Avenue to ask a couple to dump their cups of beer. As he heads back toward Old Orchard Street, he gets a call to meet with a parking attendant who was trying to answer questions for visitors.

8:16 p.m.

One of the people Robbins speaks to on Old Orchard Street tells him there is a man is banging his head on pylons under the Pier. Robbins navigates through the heavy pedestrian traffic in town square and jumps from his cruiser to look for the man.

He returns moments later and says the man was no longer there, but he did find 7-foot hole in the sand. Robbins radios his discover and asks Public Works be dispatched to fill it. He says he is worried a beachgoer or Pier employee could fall in once darkness falls.

8:18 p.m.

Robbins says the reserve program, the biggest in the state, does a great job to prepare officers for a career in law enforcement. Reserve officers, who wear yellow shirts and patrol the town and beach, complete a 100-hour course at the police academy and an additional two-week course in Old Orchard Beach.

Robbins says additional training prepares reserve officers to deal with issues they may encounter in a crowded tourist destination. He helped put together a guide for officers that details the town and local ordinances, such as the ban on dogs on Old Orchard Street.

Though winter nights can be boring, Robbins says he enjoys his job no matter the season.

“I like the fact it’s two different towns depending on the season,” he says. “It’s hopping in the summer and sleepy in winter. It’s nice to have a break from both.”

8:45 p.m.

As Robbins begins to turn onto Old Orchard Street, he sees a motorcycle run a stop sign. He flips on his blue lights and the bike promptly pulls over. The driver tells Robbins he was nearly hit by another car at the intersection and was trying to get his motorcycle out of the way. After running a check on his license, Robbins warns the man for running the stop sign and wishes him and his wife a happy anniversary.

8:50 p.m.

The crowds that lined the sidewalks an hour before start to thin, though the clang of rides at Palace Playland and chatter of visitors still fill the air. Robbins says this time of night usually brings a lull before more adults head out to dance clubs and bars. 

9:16 p.m.

Robbins checks on a suspicious car parked on the access road to the Ballpark. He uses a flashlight to check the car, which is empty. The computer mounted in each cruiser allows officers to easily pull up information on both the vehicle and registered owner. The information includes the past 11 years of the registered owner’s driving record.

9:34 p.m.

Robbins is dispatched to check on a report of a girl being assaulted on School Street. Because it is reported as an active assault, he flips on his sirens and blue lights and heads down Saco Avenue in search of the group of teenagers.

At the same time, other officers and a fire truck are sent to investigate a report that a car hit the side of Rite-Aid Pharmacy and left the area.

9:41 p.m.

After he is unable to locate a fight on School Street, Robbins finds the teenage girl who called police at the top of Old Orchard Street. She reported another girl hit her in the head before running away. He talks to the girl and her friends for several minutes to gather more information.

9:55 p.m.

With about two hours left on his shift, Robbins heads back to his patrol route. As always, he is watching pedestrians’ hands and listening for anything out of the ordinary.

10:05 p.m.

Back at the station, DeLuca sits in his office trying to get the department’s computer system to work properly. Computer issues are preventing officers from booking people and making other tasks difficult. He makes several calls looking for someone to fix the problem.

Twenty minutes later, DeLuca heads to his car to drive through downtown. The night has been steady so far, he says.

“It’s certainly not over the top and extremely busy,” he says.

DeLuca says the department is running several dedicated patrols tonight, including officers looking for partying in a remote wooded area and others dealing with vandalism at Memorial Park. Officer also spend part of their shift interacting with residents in neighborhoods outside of downtown.

10:27 p.m.

DeLuca parks his police car on the centerline at the bottom of Old Orchard Street and watches the crowds on the sidewalk.

Nearby, two reserve officers patrol on bicycles while another talks to visitors in the square. Reserve officers are trained to handle all types of calls and can make arrests, though they don’t deal with felony cases because of their complexity and follow-up required.

Reserve officers also are trained to deal with issues unique to Old Orchard Beach, including ATV and bike patrols and crowd management. DeLuca said officers are used as a tool to control crowds, especially as hundreds of bar patrons converge on Old Orchard Street at the same time when bars close at 1 a.m.

“It’s important we have that staff visible,” he says. “It’s very important in dealing with crowds to show we’re here.”

10:45 p.m.

DeLuca circles his car slowly through downtown, stopping periodically to let pedestrians cross the street and say hello to business owners. He started with the department as a reserve officer at age 19 in 1984. This is his 28^th summer in Old Orchard Beach.

“I’m very proud of this department and this community,” he says. “I really enjoy how diverse the policing is from season to season. What I really like the most is being able to work closely with the community and find solutions to their issues.”

Staff Writer Gillian Graham can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 213.