New figures released by the FBI this week show that violent crime in Maine has fallen to its lowest level in decades — though some outside groups caution about the data's reliability.
The report finds that Maine continues to be the safest in the country, with rates of rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults falling in 2022.
But The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news outlet that tracks criminal justice trends, has cautioned that the data is often incomplete, with some police departments reporting partial or no information to the FBI.
Weihua Li, a data reporter with the Marshall Project, said that about 99% of Maine's agencies did report crime figures last year, which is better than many other states.
"That said, when you look at some of the agencies more closely, a lot of the larger sheriff's offices didn't give a whole year's worth of data to the FBI. Instead, many of them reported 8, 9, 10, months of data. Instead of giving them a full year," Li said.
In Portland, police reported an increase in both murder and aggravated assault in 2022.
