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LEGISLATURE APPROVES SUBPOENA POWER FOR LEWISTON MASS SHOOTING COMMISSION
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LEWISTON, LISBON POLICE FACE TOUGH QUESTIONS ABOUT MASS SHOOTING RESPONSE
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MAINE’S YELLOW FLAG LAW HAS BEEN INVOKED NEARLY ONCE A DAY SINCE LEWISTON MASS
SHOOTING
Before the tragic events of Oct. 25, the process to take guns away from those
who pose a threat had been used infrequently. Some say reforms could make the
law stronger.
Posted 5:00 PM
Updated 13 mins ago
Joe LawlorPress Herald
7 min read
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Sgt. Colleen Adams of the Sanford Police Department’s mental health unit said
she and others who work with Maine’s yellow flag law should have a say in making
it more effective and easier to use. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer
For years, Maine police departments made little use of a state law that allows
them to take firearms away from people in crisis.
Then, in October, a man who had been hearing voices and threatening violence
shot and killed 18 people in Lewiston. In the three months since, Maine police
have used the law an average of about once a day, taking guns away from people
they believe might shoot themselves or others.
Meanwhile, a group of mental health professionals who work for police
departments in York County is aiming to improve the yellow flag law. They want
their front-line experience to be considered when lawmakers consider reforms.
“We want to make the law more user-friendly for the officers, and make it so
that it’s not overwhelming to try to use,” said Shannon Bentley, mental health
first responder with the Sanford Police Department, and part of the group
seeking change. “Officers aren’t mental health providers.”
Bentley said the process “should be more streamlined” and easier to follow, and
with not as many gray areas that can now sometimes make officers hesitant to
invoke the law.
Gov. Janet Mills said in her State of the State address that she is looking to
reform the law in the wake of the mass shooting, although specific legislation
has yet to be introduced. Democratic lawmakers are also planning to unveil
reforms to Maine’s gun laws in response to Lewiston, including potential changes
to the yellow flag law.
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Maine passed the yellow flag law in 2019, but it took years to develop a
reliable system for police to have access to mental health evaluations on
demand. The law, which is the only one of its kind in the country, requires
police to first take subjects into protective custody, then have them evaluated
by a mental health professional to confirm they pose a threat to themselves or
others before going to a judge for an order to temporarily take away someone’s
firearms.
RELATED
MOST POLICE DEPARTMENTS IN MAINE HAVE NEVER INVOKED YELLOW FLAG LAW
The yellow flag law was used sporadically before the Oct. 25 shootings in
Lewiston that killed 18 people, including an average of five times per month
from January through October last year.
But since Nov. 1, police departments across Maine have used the law an average
of once per day.
The yellow flag law was not used to take guns away from the shooter in Lewiston,
despite warnings that Robert Card falsely believed people were spreading lies
about him, had access to weapons and threatened to use them, and was in a
psychiatric facility in New York state for about two weeks in August.
RELATED
EVERYONE FEARED THE WORST ABOUT ROBERT CARD. NO ONE STOPPED HIM.
Police, mental health professionals and the courts have worked to use Maine’s
yellow flag law more often in the wake of the tragedy.
The law was used 37 times in November, 28 times in December and 35 times in
January to temporarily remove weapons from people who present a danger to
themselves or others. The law was used 179 times from July 2020 to Feb. 4, 2023,
according to the latest data from the Attorney General’s Office.
It’s often used in mental health crises, when people have access to guns and are
threatening suicide or homicide.
“More police departments are using the law,” said Ben Strick, vice president of
adult behavioral health with Spurwink, which does most of the mental health
evaluations required under the yellow flag law. “The frequency has remained
high, and we have not seen a decrease in acuity of cases. That is truly
remarkable.”
Strick said he expects significant changes to the law will be proposed by Mills
and the Maine Department of Public Safety, although details have yet to emerge.
Mills said in her State of the State address that she wants to make it easier
for police to take someone into protective custody when they are a danger to
themselves or others, a necessary step to conduct the required mental health
evaluation. Police who responded to reports of Card’s declining mental health
said they could not use the yellow flag law because they did not have probable
cause to forcibly take him into custody.
RELATED
POLICE FOOTAGE DETAILS UNSUCCESSFUL CHECK-IN ON LEWISTON SHOOTER
Exactly how Mills’ reforms would be different from current law has yet to be
revealed.
Some Maine lawmakers want the state to go further and adopt what’s known as a
red flag law, similar to laws that have been approved in 21 other states. Maine
is the only state with a yellow flag law, while 28 states have neither law on
the books. Red flag laws do not require a person be put into protective custody
or a sign-off by a mental health professional before having their weapons
removed, but still require a court process and judge approval.
Research on how effective red flag laws are at preventing violence is ongoing,
but research in Connecticut suggests they can prevent suicide in 5-10% of cases.
New York’s red flag law has been invoked thousands of times in 2022 and 2023,
but it is under attack in state courts by gun rights groups because they say it
doesn’t have enough due process for people before removing their weapons.
RELATED
RED FLAG LAW, WHICH MAINE REJECTED, SEEN AS BEST TOOL TO REMOVE GUNS DURING A
MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS
The balance between gun rights and public safety will be a key issue for
lawmakers and the Mills administration in the coming weeks. When someone is put
into protective custody, they are not under arrest, but their rights are
temporarily taken away while police assess the danger to the public.
A group of mental health liaisons representing various departments in York
County – the group meets every few weeks – has been discussing ways that the law
can be improved, and they say they should be allowed to have input on proposed
changes to the law. The group hasn’t yet formed specific recommendations.
Rachel Schlein, a behavioral health liaison with the Kennebunk Police
Department, is working with a group looking to reform Maine’s yellow flag laws.
Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer
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Rachel Schlein, behavioral health liaison with the Kennebunk Police Department
and part of the York County group, said there’s a lot of policy questions to
consider and that a lot of groups should have a seat at the table, including
mental health professionals and law enforcement on the front lines responding to
the cases.
“Are there ways to potentially reexamine how we do protective custody?” Schlein
said. “Is there a way the system can intervene earlier and more frequently? I do
believe we can do better, and these questions are worth asking and exploring
further.”
Sgt. Colleen Adams, who leads the Sanford Police Department’s mental health
unit, said that while more police departments are using the law, the process
still takes six to eight hours for each case, and not every department has the
resources to do it. Sanford’s department has been helping to train police
departments on how best to utilize the law.
“In Sanford, we have a whole unit dedicated to this,” Adams said. “We get calls
from some police departments who ask us how to do this when they have one
officer covering the entire town and the closest hospital is an hour away.”
RELATED
SAGADAHOC SHERIFF SAYS DEPARTMENT IS STILL TRYING TO ANSWER QUESTIONS ABOUT
MISSED WARNING SIGNS
Usually, the subject is in the hospital for a mental health crisis while police
work on a three-page checklist that includes a mental health assessment and
sign-off from a judge allowing them to remove weapons. The process is
time-consuming and fragile, with many potential ways that the process could be
derailed and the weapons not collected, Adams said.
Adams said despite the difficulties in using the yellow flag law, more agencies
have contacted Sanford and signed up for training on how to use the law. And she
said there’s more awareness by the public that the law exists, resulting in more
calls from people when a friend or family member is deemed dangerous and has
access to guns.
Neither the state nor the individual police departments provide detailed
information about yellow flag cases. The Attorney General’s Office provides a
running list with brief descriptions only.
Many involve people who have threatened or attempted suicide and agree to
undergo the mental health evaluation. A smaller number are people who threaten
others, and those usually involve some criminal charge that allows police to
take them into custody.
In one case in Sanford on Jan. 10, for example, “a 57-year-old man suffering
paranoid delusions fired several shotgun rounds at imaginary people invading his
home and entered neighbor’s house with loaded shotgun seeking assistance”
according to the Attorney General’s summary.
Adams said that’s a good example of the limitations of the yellow flag law
because had the man not fired his weapon, Sanford police may have had a more
difficult time removing the weapons. Adams said the fact that the man could be
charged with reckless endangering by firing the weapon gave police more tools to
use when responding to the scene.
RELATED
MAINE’S GUN LAWS RATED AS AMONG THE MOST LAX IN THE NATION
Adams said another shortcoming is that there’s no state database that can tell
officers who is a “prohibited person” and not allowed to possess firearms as a
result of the yellow flag law. She said that without a lot of investigating,
police have no way of knowing when as they make a stop whether someone is
permitted to have their weapons.
“Whatever is proposed,” Adams said, “we would like (lawmakers and the Mills
administration) to say, ‘Give us your thoughts and opinions on how this will
work for you.’ After all, we are going to be the ones utilizing the laws.”
RELATED HEADLINES
* Most police departments in Maine have never invoked yellow flag law
* Six police departments, including Portland, have used yellow flag law for
first time since Lewiston shootings
* Everyone feared the worst about Robert Card. No one stopped him.
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filed under:
janet mills, lewiston maine, maine legislature, mass shooting, mental health,
Oct 25 killings, yellow flag
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