Bangor police bringing downtown walking beat back

Downtown Bangor will soon have a police officer patrolling the streets on foot — after more than two years without one.

Bringing the walking beat back is a result of the Bangor City Council asking Police Chief Mark Hathaway in a March meeting what can be done about people downtown using substances, experiencing mental health issues and loitering. City officials said business owners have brought up issues including people in crisis downtown, petty theft and trash left in doorways.

Business owners interviewed by the Bangor Daily News last week expressed similar concerns, and said a police presence would be a deterrent for some of the behavior they’ve noticed downtown.

“It’s pretty straightforward — we think it’s a good idea,” said Luke Ledbetter, owner of Morningstar Piercings & Tattoo.

Having an officer patrolling the streets may also make their customers feel safer, Ledbetter said.

The officer will communicate and check in with business owners and staff, as well as downtown residents and visitors. The goal is for the officer to “enhance our connection to the downtown community, improve safety, expand officer visibility and root out bad behavior,” Hathaway said.

Bangor had an on-foot officer patrolling downtown from around 2013 to 2021, according to Bangor Daily News articles. The department cut the beat more than two years ago because of staffing shortages, Hathaway said.

Councilor Gretchen Schaefer said she is “totally supportive” of a downtown beat cop to help with security and safety. She said having someone in the position hired by the city is better than using Streetplus, an external vendor Downtown Bangor Partnership has proposed the city hire.

The nonprofit has asked the city to hire the Brooklyn-based safety company for a three-year contract of roughly $1.2 million.

“My skepticism for Streetplus is not a lack of support for increasing services downtown,” Schaefer said. “I just am not sure that a private security company is the best organization to provide those services.”

The department expects to know who will be on the beat in the coming weeks, with a start date goal of early summer, Hathaway said. Bangor police plan to staff the position with its current budget, he said.

The officer will be expected to confront people who are doing something criminal or causing issues downtown, Hathaway said. Details aren’t finalized for the beat, but the officer will be present during daytime and early evening hours.

“We are, however, hopeful that a consistent presence will reduce bad behavior and eventually eliminate the need to confront criminal violations,” he said.

There’s been an increase of people attempting to steal from Grass Roots of Maine, 32 State St., owner Ann-Dee Spearrin said. She’s moved a lot of items into cases or behind counters to help prevent that.

The visibility of an officer walking around downtown will likely encourage people to behave better, Spearrin said.

Downtown resident Dominic Nuovo said he thinks an on-foot patrol officer will be helpful. He walks around downtown with his cat, Gabby, on a leash and sometimes perched on his shoulder.

“I don’t like seeing all the orange caps kicking around,” Nuovo said, referring to the caps on syringes.

Bangor had a walking beat that fizzled out sometime in the 1990s. In the 1980s, the officer had a daytime beat, walking through stores to discourage shoplifting and handing out parking tickets because there wasn’t a parking enforcement division, according to a 2013 Bangor Daily News article.

Business owners were “ecstatic” the walking beat returned in 2013, according to that article. The goal was for the officer to address panhandling, loitering and substance use in downtown.