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Police tell council data are accurate but reporting changes make cross-city comparisons misleading
Summary
Bangor police briefed the council after a newspaper comparison showed high crime counts; staff said the raw counts were accurately reported but the shift to incident-based reporting and variable coding practices between agencies make simple comparative rankings misleading, and they pledged recategorization and clearer public messaging.
Bangor police told the city council that recent newspaper crime comparisons used accurate figures but that differences in reporting practice and a 2020 shift to incident-based reporting make head-to-head comparisons with other communities misleading.
The city's police chief (unnamed in the transcript) and Lieutenant Brent Bullier explained that the state's move away from the old hierarchical UCR model to an incident-based system records multiple offense codes for a single incident, which can inflate counts relative to the older method. Bullier said the department reports "all crimes" as required and reviewed examples where calls coded as "threatening" or harassment may increase counts even when follow-up review determines the reports do not meet statutory elements.
Lieutenant Bullier and the chief emphasized that the newspaper used accurate raw data but that contextual differences in coding and agency practices limit the meaning of simple per-capita rankings. The police presentation included examples (mental-health calls coded as threats; single incidents producing multiple offense codes) and staff said they respond to roughly 36,000 calls per year.
Council members asked what the council and staff could do to correct public narrative and improve comparisons. Police said they will re-categorize some reports, add additional audit steps to identify unfounded entries, and return to the council with refined numbers and suggested public messaging. The chief urged councilors to tell constituents that "Bangor is a very safe community" while staff work on clearer public reporting.
Next steps: the police will continue reconciling reported categories, adjust future reporting where appropriate, and provide updated figures and outreach guidance to the council.
