Overall crime numbers in Maine down for 5th year - Press Herald

Crime in Maine decreased in 2016, the fifth straight annual drop in the state, the Maine Department of Public Safety reported Wednesday morning.

The department said crime rates in seven categories showed decreases last year, although the rates of three categories of crime – arson, rape and aggravated assault – increased. Overall, the crime rate in Maine declined 8.7 percent last year and has dropped 38.6 percent since 2011, the department reported.

The overall crime rate for the state was 18 offenses per 1,000 people. By comparison, the crime rate nationally in 2015 was 29 per 1,000. The rate of violent crime in Maine was one offense per 1,000 people, compared to a national rate for violent crime of four per 1,000.

“Maine is still one of the safest places in the country to live,” said Steve McCausland, the spokesman for the department. Most experts have said that Maine crime rates are down because of the state’s aging population, with younger people more likely to commit crimes.

Crime numbers may be lower, but to police officers around that state, “it doesn’t feel that way” because of drug use, sales and manufacturing in the the state, McCausland said.

“We’re getting more calls, we’re working harder and we deal with drugs all the time,” McCausland said.

However, the numbers don’t necessarily reflect that, even on drug crimes, he conceded.

According to the crime report, total drug arrests declined to 5,411 in 2016, from 5,943 the year before, a drop of 9 percent. Most of the arrests, 4,302, were for drug possession, while 1,109 were for sale or manufacturing.

The biggest numbers were tied to marijuana possession or sale – nearly half the possession arrests were for marijuana and nearly 20 percent of the sale and manufacturing arrests were for selling or growing marijuana. But 474 of the sale or manufacturing arrests involved opiates, cocaine or derivatives.

Voters in 2016 approved a ballot measure that makes the possession of small amounts of marijuana by adults legal, although the state is still developing the rules around sale of marijuana.

In Cumberland County, the crime rate was 19.33 per 1,000 last year, down from 20.31 in 2015. In York County, the crime rate was 18.12 per capita, down from 20.15 in 2015.

Murders increased from three to six in Cumberland County last year, but all other categories of crime were down except for aggravated assault and arson. In York County, murders also increased, from one to two. Rapes, aggravated assaults and arson also increased, while robberies, burglaries, larcenies and motor vehicle thefts declined.

The clearance rate for crimes was 35.6 percent in Cumberland County, up from 33.4 percent the year before. In York County, it was 28.9 percent in 2016, down from 30.4 percent the year before. Clearance rates are based on charges lodged against an alleged offender, who is then taken into custody and the national average clearance rate for 2015 was 22.7 percent.

The statewide homicide rate dropped in 2016, declining by 21 percent from 23 homicides in 2015 to 18 last year. Burglaries and robberies also dropped sharply – burglaries declined 14.6 percent, from 4,675 in 2015 to 3,991 last year, and robberies were down 14.5 percent, from 311 in 2015 to 266 in 2016. Larceny-thefts, simple assaults, domestic violence assaults and motor vehicle thefts also posted declines last year.

Arson saw the largest increase, jumping 129.7 percent, with 209 incidents last year, up from 91 reported in 2015. State officials said that increase is largely due to a new reporting system that has the state Fire Marshal’s Office reporting arson incidents, rather than individual police departments. McCausland said there were some inconsistencies in reporting of arson cases in the past by local police and it’s expected that the numbers will be more accurate in the future because the Fire Marshal’s Office investigates all arson cases in the state.

Rapes also increased by 2.7 percent, from 373 rape cases in 2015 to 383 last year, along with aggravated assaults, which increased from 916 to 1,002 incidents, a percentage increase of 9.4 percent. Aggravated assaults usually involve the use of a weapon and McCausland said that weapons are involved in more assault cases than in years past.

The department also said that the decrease in crime was relatively uniform between rural areas and cities and towns. Crime in rural areas, which are typically patrolled by state police or county sheriff’s departments, dropped by 9.8 percent and in urban areas, which typically have their own municipal police departments, the drop was 8.3 percent.

Adult arrests were down 3.4 percent last year, from 41,649 in 2015 to 40,227 in 2016. Juvenile arrests were down from 3,547 in 2015 to 3,222 last year, a decrease of 9.2 percent.

The value of property stolen during 2016 was reported as $17.9 million, down from $20.3 million in 2015. Police recovered 28.5 percent of the stolen property last year, valued at $5.1 million. In 2015, police recovered $5.7 million in stolen property.

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