AUGUSTA, Maine - The LePage administration is describing a record drop in overall crime in Maine as nothing short of a phenomenon. Public Safety Commissioner John Morris also says the 25 percent decline over the last two years can be attributed, in part, to the state's aging population and to a successful drug take-back program.
Still, drug arrests continue to surge in Maine, says Morris, who sees no predictable reduction in drug trafficking any time soon.
Morris says the Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics for 2014 show that crime dropped nearly 15 percent - the largest decline in the four decades that Maine has kept detailed records. "Maine continues to be one of the safest - if not the safest - state in the union, based on these figures."
The news about Maine's crime ranking coincides with a spate of armed robberies in Portland, a one-man crime spree in Aroostook County, and a manhunt of a suspected murderer that's now in its second week.
While Morris could not comment on the recent criminal events, he does believe that much of the major crime Maine experiences is linked to a single source: out-of-state drug trafficking.
"If your listeners read the paper and they look at the mug shots in any paper of MDEA arrests, if they look at where these people are from, they're going to see out of state - Brooklyn, Bronx, Lowell, New Bedford, Philadelphia," Morris says. "I mean, everybody should be observing that, so you can form your own opinions. What is happening is that out-of-state gangs are taking over drug trafficking in Maine."
In his weekly radio message, Gov. Paul LePage focused on the threat posed by drug traffickers - and he also found someone to blame. "Democrats have given up on getting drugs off our streets," LePage said. "Their solution is simply ignore the problem. To be successful fighting Maine's drug problem we must have a plan. We need to fund more agents at the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency."
LePage said the state would be in a better position to fight drug traffickers if Democrats had not rejected his bill that would have funded seven more MDEA agents.
But Democrats, like Sen. Stan Gerzofsky of Brunswick, who serves on the Legislature's Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee, say they are offended by the governor's partisan accusation.
"The governor talks about headlines and the governor talks about more law enforcement - well he has over 2,000 law enforcement that can arrest anybody for dealing drugs or even using drugs," Gerzofsky says. "I don't think his argument holds much water when he doesn't put the resources behind it."
Commissioner Morris disputes Gerzofsky's assessment, saying there are big differences between the mission of a MDEA agent and the average law enforcement officer in Maine.
According to the report, aggravated assaults dropped by more than 4 percent last year, domestic violence assaults were down by nearly 8 percent, and burglaries decreased by more than 22 percent. Overall crime rates dropped by double digits in both rural and urban areas of Maine.