Many Bangor area residents said they weren’t surprised to hear that data released earlier this week showed crime in the city rose in 2024.
“I don’t feel safe downtown alone,” Montana Bishop told the Bangor Daily News while visiting Tractor Supply Co. on Broadway.
Bishop moved to Glenburn from Rangeley last year. She recalled a day when she tried to go shopping in downtown Bangor but ended up leaving after seeing a person she thought was on drugs waving his arms around in front of a store.
“I’m surprised that it’s been allowed,” she said. “I’m not gonna risk it.”
Bangor saw reported crimes grow from 3,700 in 2023 to 4,124 in 2024, according to the most recent statewide crime report. That comes even as the total number of reported crimes fell statewide, from 43,377 in 2023 to 42,559 in 2024.
There were just 3,168 reported crimes in Bangor in 2021, according to that year’s crime report. Crime data from 2025 is not yet publicly available.
Intimidation, when words or actions are used to threaten someone without a physical attack or displaying a dangerous weapon, was the most commonly reported crime in Bangor with 704 instances — up from 550 such reports the previous year.
The BDN spoke with nearly a dozen Greater Bangor residents on Friday, and the interviews revealed a wide range of feelings around safety in the Queen City, with some saying they felt unsafe downtown and others reporting that they don’t see much crime and aren’t very concerned about it.
A Bangor resident shopping at Shaw’s, who declined to share his name, said he was “kind of baffled” when he read in the BDN that crime rose in 2024, noting that feelings of safety are subjective and some reported crimes may not be very serious.
Many residents connected concerns about crime to visible drug use and homelessness in the city.
“When I first came here, I’d never seen so many needle caps,” said Brian Harrell, 49, who moved to the Bangor area eight years ago from Virginia and said he thinks crime and drug use have gotten worse in that time. “Every day I try not to go to Bangor,” he said.
Others said they see crime and homelessness as separate issues.
“I haven’t seen any difference” in crime over the last few years, one woman who declined to share her name said on a grocery run at Shaw’s. A resident of Cedar Street in Bangor who moved from Prospect Harbor six years ago, she said she feels safe in the city and is concerned about homelessness but not so much about crime.
Some residents were skeptical that the City Council will be able to alleviate their concerns around crime and public safety.
Margaret Peckenham, who moved to Bangor with her family about two years ago from Orland, said she feels “like maybe the people in charge don’t really care.”
When asked about the reported increase in crime, City Councilor Michael Beck noted that discrepancies in how different Maine cities record crime data, which the BDN previously reported on, can make it look like crime in Bangor is worse than other cities when that really may not be the case. He said he’d want to learn more about how crimes are reported before deciding how to address the issue.
He also pointed to the way visible symptoms of homelessness can cause discomfort.
“You can ask the average resident walking through the street and they don’t feel unsafe — maybe uncomfortable sometimes, when you see someone unhoused or that kind of thing, but not unsafe,” he said.
Beck added that he thinks finding more stable, long-term housing solutions for homeless community members — a goal that the council has struggled to make progress on as unsheltered homelessness has persisted in the city in recent years — could help address residents’ safety concerns.
City Council Chair Susan Hawes did not respond to a request for comment on the crime report.
One Bangor resident, Tammy Gayton, said she doesn’t think crime is as bad now as it was a few years ago.
“It’s a little sketchy — it hasn’t been horrible, but it’s there,” she said about where she lives downtown on Harlow Street, where homeless people often pass through Peirce Park and the public library area.
Gayton is in recovery from addiction and said she can understand how people affected by the opioid epidemic or homelessness might commit crimes to survive.
“I’ve been in that position where I’ve done some unsavory things,” she said. “But I can see how a lot of people would be nervous” if they don’t understand where those people are coming from, she added.
The Bangor Police Department has previously said crimes in Bangor are typically committed against people who know each other, not strangers.
“The homeless are not preying upon people, but boy they make folks uncomfortable,” department spokesperson Jason McAmbley said in October.
