After the Maine State Police, the Sanford Police Department has most utilized Maine’s yellow flag law. (Stock photo by Artas via Getty Images)
At least one law enforcement agency in every county has used Maine’s yellow flag law to take weapons away from people who pose a danger to themselves or others. But use of the law has differed vastly by county, with local police departments and sheriff’s offices in the southernmost two counties using it more frequently compared to the rest of the state.
For example, in Cumberland County, 13 different police departments and the sheriff’s office have used the law at least once. In York County, 12 different agencies including the sheriff’s office have used the law, with Sanford police using it more than any agency in the state, except for Maine State Police.
But in the more rural counties, the law has been used only a handful of times since it was established in 2020. Law enforcement agencies in all of Washington and Waldo counties have used it only four times each over the past five years. And in Waldo County, the sheriff’s office was the only agency that has taken guns away from people using the provision.
Most agencies didn’t use the yellow flag law until after the Lewiston mass shooting in October 2023. In the three years between the passage of the law and the shooting, only about a third of the more than 90 agencies had used it, according to data from the Maine Attorney General’s office.
The map below shows which agencies in each county have used the law, as of February 9. It does not include statewide agencies including state police, the warden service, or capitol police.
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