Police in Maine have Shot People 175 times since 1990. The AG’s office has ruled Cops were justified every time. Coincidence Theorists Say its Just Coincidence, Not Due to Any Government Collusion

Police in Maine have shot people 175 times since 1990. The AG’s office has ruled police were justified every time.

“That’s an incredible batting average,” said Thom Harnett, a former assistant attorney general who spent 27 years in the Maine attorney general's office.

Harnett, now retired and serving as a Maine state representative, is one of many advocating for change.

Logic would dictate Maine’s outcome a statistical impossibility, argues Michael Kebede, policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine.

“It’s very shocking for the attorney general not to have found any law enforcement officer guilty of unlawful behavior after they’ve shot and killed someone in the entire history of the state of Maine,” said Kebede. “Even a broken clock is right twice a day.”

Maine's record on police shootings has been well publicized over the past decade, prompting various reform efforts.

Despite the changes, however, the state continues to clear police officers of criminal wrongdoing each time they shoot someone. Maine families impacted by police shootings also told the USA TODAY Network that new reforms haven’t yielded the transparency they’re desperate for.

Bangor attorney Hunter Tzovarras said those outcomes show a key shortcoming of the AG's investigations has seemingly gone overlooked, despite all of the public attention — that the AG's office typically only interviews the officers who use deadly force at the beginning of the investigation, even if it later finds evidence that contradicts the officer’s account. [MORE]