The Bar Harbor and Mount Desert police, who unified the departments after some turmoil, is retiring at the end of this week.
After a 36-year career in law enforcement that for the past decade has included him serving in the unprecedented dual role for the two towns, James Willis is taking a private sector job as a public safety consultant.
“I’m happy. I’m sad. I’m afraid and I’m excited,” Willis, 57, said Monday about his decision. “Friday is officially my last day in both towns.”
Willis was the first police chief to serve for both departments in a unique sharing agreement. As his tenure ends, it’s unclear if the arrangement will continue — though some officials are hopeful it will.
Willis has been serving as police chief for the town of Mount Desert since 2003 and for Bar Harbor since 2013. Prior to that, he worked for the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department for 16 years and as a victim witness advocate for the Hancock County District Attorney’s office for one year.
David Kerns, who serves in the dual role of captain for both police departments, will serve as acting chief for both towns beginning next week.
In Mount Desert, Town Manager Durling Lunt said that it will be up to the elected boards of the two towns whether the sharing agreement continues, but he would like to see it happen. He said the two towns have not yet discussed the process of formally hiring a new chief.
Officials in Bar Harbor did not respond to requests for comment on Monday.
In becoming the police chief in both towns, Willis took over departments that were experiencing some turmoil.
Willis became chief in Mount Desert first, a department that had an officer arrested for drunken driving and another officer filed a grievance against the town over his rank and pay in the months leading up to his hiring..
About 10 years later in Bar Harbor, Willis temporarily replaced Nathan Young, who was placed on leave following allegations that he drove while drunk in Bar Harbor and then pressured his officers not to investigate the matter. After Young was fired, the two towns made the arrangement permanent.
“I think Jim Willis is definitely at the top of the heap,” Lunt said. “He’s created a legacy in the towns of Mount Desert and Bar Harbor that I think will last a long time.”
Willis said he is proud of having brought the two departments together in a seamless way. Although the towns fund the department separately, it effectively functions as one department. The agreement has also been expanded to include Capt. David Kerns and an administrative assistant.
Willis said all officers in the two departments take oaths of office in both towns, allowing them to patrol either in Bar Harbor or Mount Desert. And by having a bigger pool of resources to work with in terms of personnel and funding, the unusual arrangement benefits both towns.
“The officers now have better work scheduled, better equipment, and better investigations,” Willis said. “We learned how to work together.”
Willis gave credit to elected and appointed leaders in both towns, and to the respective staffs under his supervision, with not only helping to make the arrangement work but in helping to restore public confidence in the departments.
“Not every town gets to enjoy that,” he said.
Other parts of his career that Willis said he will remember are his tenure in 2014 as president of the Maine Chiefs of Police Association, and being next to former Sheriff’s Deputy Jeff McFarland in 1999 when fugitive Richard Burdick shot McFarland in the chest. McFarland survived. He’ll also remember helping to introduce forensic interview techniques for children victims of crimes.
“That’s routine now,” Willis said of child abuse interviews.
Willis said he will not miss the unpredictable hours of supervising two police departments, but he will miss his co-workers and others he has gotten to know through his job
“It’s the friends you make and the people you work with that stick with you the most,” he said.
