Crime in Portland Maine (crime rate, college, living in)

[Petertherock]

Well, the new numbers back up what I have been saying about Portland getting worse and worse in the Portland area. Here are the crime numbers from 2000 when I moved to Maine until last year. You can see a steady rise in crime.


City-data.com crime index (higher means more crime, U.S. average = 278.6)

2000-326.6
2001=313.4
2002-357.4
2003-371.5
2004-353.9
2005-365.0
2006-404.8

As you can see it was up and down from 2000 until 2003 and then a steady rise in crime from 2004 until 2006. From what I have been hearing on the scanner lately it's looking like we could see a new high this year.

[flycessna]

The US average includes all rural areas also. It's hard to compare apples to oranges. But as a simple guide...your right!!....it's getting worse.

FYI comparing similiar sized communities in Maine to Similiar sized communities outside of boston..(where I grew up)...The boston suburbs have a much lower crime rate. But when comparing Maine to Ma ...... Maine looks much better.

unfortunately Crime has much to do with economic conditions, and other demographic figures for a particular city.

[mollysmiles]

Originally Posted by flycessna

...unfortunately Crime has much to do with economic conditions, and other demographic figures for a particular city.

Exactly, and frankly, you can pretty much make a statistic look any way you'd like. For example, is reporting increasing and crime holding steady? There's no way to know that from those numbers. I took two statistics classes in college and I learned two things: one, they're never accurate, and two, how to skew them to reflect what I needed.

[TheMaineGirl]

Are those statistics crime per capita?? What are the population statistics? My guess is that those numbers increased a great deal from 2000 as well. With more people comes more crime, unfortunately any city deals with more crime due to that higher population than the suburbs and rural areas.

[genmomto5]

Where does that average come from. I checked another city, albeit larger, that said the national average was like 370 or something.

[K-Luv]

The numbers may be up, but what kind of crime? From what I read the most common crimes around Portland are petty and not violent. Traffic violations, parole violations, public intoxication, and possession of controlled substance seem to make up the bulk.

[Mark S.]

Crime is on the rise in Portland, and because I'm not much of a "city boy," I'm not sure I'd want to be there. But having lived in Seattle/Tacoma for almost 10 years, and having visited places like L.A., San Diego, Phoenix, Dallas, Ft. Worth, and Denver ... Portland is still a pretty good place to live. Not perfect and definitely room for improvement. But still one of the nicer cities I've been to.

[richard04101]

Said but true that "violent" crime is on the rise in Portland while the population is not growing. In fact, Portlands Per capita crime rate is higher than that of many major US cities and higher then "most" suburbs of major US cities. I won't quote stats. but if you look at numbers from various sources, it apparant this is the case with many surveys. I have been living in Portland for almost five years now and thought I would do some research. I was surprised to find that Portland actually has the highest per capita crime rate of the past three cities I have lived in(Seattle, Denver, and if you can believe it, New York City.) I really don't know why as I found that portland has a much higher rate of police officers per citizen. Remember that I mentioned violent crimes were higher. One can only conclude that local police and the DA's office are focusing more on minor crimes and motor vehicle offences. Prosecuting traffic offences are much easier and generate much more revenue for the local economy. Additionally, with the local media hipe regardingdriving offences, they are also pandering to the emotions of the public as well as generating revenue. The bottom line is that that if you have the same amount of law enforcement and you get tougher on driving laws, you have to neglect other crimes.

[flycessna]

Originally Posted by richard04101

Said but true that "violent" crime is on the rise in Portland while the population is not growing. In fact, Portlands Per capita crime rate is higher than that of many major US cities and higher then "most" suburbs of major US cities. I won't quote stats. but if you look at numbers from various sources, it apparant this is the case with many surveys. I have been living in Portland for almost five years now and thought I would do some research. I was surprised to find that Portland actually has the highest per capita crime rate of the past three cities I have lived in(Seattle, Denver, and if you can believe it, New York City.) I really don't know why as I found that portland has a much higher rate of police officers per citizen. Remember that I mentioned violent crimes were higher. One can only conclude that local police and the DA's office are focusing more on minor crimes and motor vehicle offences. Prosecuting traffic offences are much easier and generate much more revenue for the local economy. Additionally, with the local media hipe regardingdriving offences, they are also pandering to the emotions of the public as well as generating revenue. The bottom line is that that if you have the same amount of law enforcement and you get tougher on driving laws, you have to neglect other crimes.

A few things.....I wouldn't doubt that Portlands crime rates "may" be higher than some of those cities. I do not know why people assume all large cities are ridden with crime.

However, I am suprised to here that Portland has MORE police officers per capita than NY. I will have to look into that.

As a fact though........Police departments do not necessarily chose "not" to focus on violent crime. In fact....there has been a movement for police departments to focus on small petty crimes...studies have shown that when you focus on small petty crimes...the larger more serious offenses decline. NY city was the pioneering agency that enforced this. Public drinking, Agressive pan handling, ect, have all been heavily enforced. And it is a matter of record that they saw a huge drop in violent more serious crimes.

Also, IN MAINE, Local police departments do not recieve ANY of the revenues from traffic enforcement. All of that money goes directly to the state It doesn't even go into a lawenforcement fund to come back and be used for training and such...it's the general fund

[Maineah]

I'm all for crime in Portland. It cuts down on crime in the surrounding towns. Without high crime rates there would be no cool cop shows on the "tru" channel! No more "Worlds Wildest Police Chases!" or the new one they have "World's Dumest Criminals" hosted by Danny Bonnaduce and Tonya Harding! Now there's some quality TV watching right there! Thanks criminals.... for enriching our television choices!