A state panel that assesses police shootings in Maine has issued a long list of recommendations for law enforcement, including urging agencies to take more preventive steps when responding to domestic violence calls.

The 11-member deadly force review panel, comprising law enforcement officials, attorneys and medical professionals, reviews each shooting to determine whether the officer followed best practices and to recommend policy changes to police agencies.

Their reviews follow investigations by the attorney general’s office, which investigates all police shootings in Maine and has never found a use of force to be unjustified.

The panel has reviewed 39 cases in the same order as Attorney General Aaron Frey since it began in 2019, including eight in 2024. Mental illness, alcohol and drugs were factors in many shootings, the report said. And a majority of the shootings stemmed from people “confronting” officers with firearms.

While the panel’s past reports have reiterated calls for statewide mental health support and stronger use of the yellow flag law, the 2024 report issued Wednesday placed specific emphasis on what officers should be doing before, during and after police shootings to prevent harm. Police should be connecting victims to mental health and substance use disorder services to deal with trauma after the shooting, the report states.

“The panel is concerned that there may be inadequate post-incident liaison services for victims,” the panel wrote, recommending that the Office of the Maine Attorney General hire a victim witness advocate in its investigation division.

Agencies should also partner with community groups to develop plans for different emergencies, the panel said, such as Augusta’s Bread of Life shelter, which was the site of a 2021 fatal police shooting.

In that case, two Augusta police officers fired 14 shots at 34-year-old Dustin Paradis, who allegedly assaulted a resident and was cutting himself. The panel released a report on the shooting last month, recommending that Maine officers have access to less-lethal weapons and body-worn cameras.

When possible, the panel says officers should request backup when responding to domestic violence calls “since the presence of several officers usually discourages a suspect who may be prone to a struggle with a single officer.”

SEPARATE CALL TYPES

The panel also recommended dispatch centers create separate call types, such as domestic violence calls, that “automatically trigger a two-officer response.”

Last month, the panel said a York County deputy who fatally shot a man in Waterboro in 2022 was “misguided” when he confronted the suspect alone.

Thirty year-old Tyler Woodburn was accused of driving while intoxicated with his fiancée in the car on Sept. 7, 2022. The responding deputy, Levi Johnson, shot and killed Woodburn while the men wrestled each other for control of a gun outside of a home.

The report also cautions against where police aim their guns.

“Shooting with a residential building as a backdrop is undesirable and should be avoided whenever possible,” the report reads. “Evacuation should occur after the threat has been contained within an established perimeter.”

The panel said the Maine Criminal Justice Academy should consistently review its firearms training and teach its students the risk of wielding both a gun and a less-lethal weapon, like a Taser.