Maine: Bangor crime rate highest in the state

Bangor crime rate highest in the state
Anti-casino group claims Hollywood Slots to blame

Files of evidence stored by the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office in Bangor. The crime rate per capita in Maine is the highest in the city of Bangor, according to figures recently released by the Maine Department of Public Safety.

It’s the crimes that don’t make headlines that are on the rise in Bangor.

Large spikes in property crimes (burglaries and thefts) pushed the city’s crime rate to 71.6 indexed crimes per 1,000 people in 2009, according to the most recent statistics released by the Maine Department of Public Safety. Bangor’s crime rate was the highest in Maine among communities with more than 10,000 people and nearly triple the statewide average of 25.34 crimes per 1,000 people.

Anti-casino groups have long tried to link the city’s increase in crime to the arrival of Hollywood Slots Hotel and Raceway, the state’s only gambling facility to date.

Since 2005, when Hollywood Slots opened, crime in Bangor has gone up every year, while the statewide rate has remained steady and communities of Bangor’s size have seen decreases. Portland’s crime rate, for instance, has dropped 3 percent since 2005 and Lewiston’s has fallen by 9 percent.

“We don’t know if the casino is linked to the increase in the city’s crime rate, but with all due respect to the city’s police officials, their explanations are unsatisfactory,” said Dennis Bailey, executive director of CasinosNO! “They only seem to count the number of calls they get to respond to incidents on the casino property, but the problems linked to gambling addiction are much more insidious and harder to determine.”

From 2005 to 2006, Bangor’s crime rate rose from 51.65 to 63.01 per 1,000 residents. In 2008, crime increased to 65.07 per 1,000 and this year, the rate eclipsed 70.

Bailey with CasinosNO! argued that crimes can sometimes be attributed to Hollywood Slots even if a direct link is not there.

“For example, if someone gambles away all of his money so he can’t afford to buy dinner and gets caught stealing a can of tuna fish at Shaws, is that a casino-related crime or just shoplifting?” Bailey said. “If someone gambles away the family’s nest egg, goes home and gets into an argument with his wife that results in a physical altercation, is that a casino-related crime or listed as domestic violence?”