This Maine police dept. turned its Facebook page into a meme account. The internet is loving it.

In the corner of the internet where memes and law enforcement collide, a small-town police department in Maine has become an unlikely social media star.

The Clinton Police Department’s Facebook page is a mix of photo edits, tongue-in-cheek winter traffic advisories (“Drive normal. Or walk home reflecting on your choices”), and patrol playlists written in the prose of an angsty, chronically online teen. 

So, what’s the strategy behind the madness? 

“I like that you call it a strategy,” Cpl. Mike Conners said with a chuckle. “There’s zero strategy involved.” 

Conners is the department’s social media manager and a self-described “professional chaos coordinator,” as evident in his posts. 

“Back about three years ago, our chief asked me to take over the Facebook page,” he explained. “He’s pretty much been regretting it ever since.”

Early attempts at blending humor and policing were met with a positive reception, and Clinton police amassed an online following several times greater than the town’s population of about 3,400. Still, nobody expected the page to go viral. 

That is, until mid-December, when inspiration struck in the form of Patrolman Caleb Proctor. The photo in question showed a uniformed Proctor perched in a desk chair like a Pete Davidson impersonator, his beanie hiked outrageously high. 

“It was Christmastime, and I posted, ‘Ladies, stop asking Santa for the perfect man, because the elves keep trying to kidnap Auxiliary Officer Proctor,’” Conners recalled. “That took off, and it’s kind of been an upward trajectory since then.”

There are other recurring bits, like “Seen It Saturday” — a reminder that very little gets past Clinton police. But, as Conners explained, “You can’t go wrong with a good ol’ AO Proctor meme.”

And Proctor, a 25-year-old Maine native who came to Clinton PD by way of the Marine Corps, has gotten in on the fun. On his own Facebook page, he engages with his “Procateers” fan base, jokes about getting poached by other law enforcement agencies, and continues his manhunt for Bandit, the raccoon mascot of Clinton’s online rival, the Jerome Police Department in Idaho. 

“I’ve always been, like, a go-with-it guy, I guess, if that makes sense. And not … like the Adam Sandler, ‘Just Go With It,’” Proctor deadpanned. “But I’ve always been a guy that, you know, whatever’s thrown at me, I’ll handle.”

Still, it hasn’t been entirely smooth sailing; Clinton police briefly toned down the humor and satire last month after negative feedback appeared to put their mutual aid in jeopardy. 

“We’re a small department. … We have more cows than people in our town, because we’re the dairy capital of Maine,” Conners explained. “So we rely on our mutual aid agencies to back us up a lot, and if there was a chance that they wouldn’t come help us because of what we were posting on Facebook, the chief and I both agreed that we weren’t going to put our officers and our citizens at risk.”

After further investigation revealed the naysayers were “just a couple loud voices,” however, the Clinton Police Department page returned in full force. And according to Conners, Chief of Police Stanley “Rusty” Bell has been overwhelmingly supportive — even if some of the more outlandish content has him reaching for TUMS. 

“He’s got a great sense of humor,” Conners said. “He’s probably in therapy secretly, but I think, you know, overall, he loves it.”

He said Clinton police also know when to turn down the humor and focus on serious business, from weather emergencies to fentanyl busts and grisly assault cases.

“We’re goofy, but if somebody thinks because they’re goofy or because we’re goofy that they can get away with breaking the law, then they probably should reconsider that theory,” Conners suggested. 

Proctor added: “When it’s time to work, it’s time to work. When people call, we show up. And that’s what they expect.” 

Still, they agreed the online engagement has been “mind-blowing,” with likes and comments trickling in from all over the world. 

“I just can’t wrap my head around it, especially where we’re such a small town and people in Maine don’t even know where Clinton is,” Conners said. 

Both he and Proctor said they’ve also received messages from people who said the Clinton police Facebook page has made them smile, or even eased some of their distrust for law enforcement. 

“The slogan is ‘protect and serve,’ and if you brighten somebody’s day, there’s no better way to serve, in my opinion, than making people happy,” Conners said, adding, “And if the people that don’t live in our town and don’t pay taxes want to complain that I’m wasting taxpayer money, I don’t care to hear it.”

As for the bottom-line message Clinton police hope to send? 

“Just that police officers are human,” Conners said. “We go home to our families; Proctor goes home to his pizza rolls that he microwaves.”

“Woah, what?!” Proctor interjected in mock outrage. 

“I hope that people see Clinton is great,” Conners continued. “If you come to Clinton, our police department is going to treat you fairly. If you break the law, we’re going to deal with it, because we do have a job to do, but we’re not out to harass people. We’re not out to give people a hard time. … But otherwise, come to Clinton, have fun, don’t be stupid.”

Abby Patkin is a general assignment news reporter whose work touches on public transit, crime, health, and everything in between.