BANGOR, Maine — The City of Bangor once again has a designated police officer patrolling the city's downtown area.
Officer Keith Larby has been stationed downtown since late May, and many people have started to see his impact, especially local business owners, like Rick Vigue, owner of Rebecca’s Gift Shop.
"He comes in and visits everyone and he's very visible to the customers, and just a lot of people feel just a lot safer having him around," Vigue said.
Vigue and other business owners downtown had grown accustomed to having a presence downtown with Bangor police having an on-foot officer patrolling downtown from 2013 to 2021.
Sgt. Jason McCambley cited staffing issues as the major reason for losing the position.
"We lost it for a while because we were just so short on officers that we had to put somebody back into a car and roam around and go to the calls. Now we're up to the point in our staffing that we can put somebody downtown," McCambley said.
The demand for the reintroduction of the walking beat officer came from a need for the city to address substance use, mental health crises, and loitering downtown.
In the relatively short time that officer Larby has been downtown though, Sgt. McCambley says the Bangor Police Department has already started noticing a difference.
"Behavior changes when you're being watched, and we have a problem with some people downtown that are doing things that they shouldn't be doing. And officer Larby has done a whole lot to curtail that already," McCambley said.
One of the ways Officer Larby has found success during his patrols is by switching up his route each day.
"I want to kind of be unpredictable so the people who are down here to do unsavory things don't know when to expect me," Larby said.
But when he does catch people doing "unsavory things," Officer Larby’s first reaction is to talk rather than put them in cuffs.
"If I chat with somebody like they’re my buddy or my friend, I think that breaks the tension a lot, especially with folks who experience drug addiction, mental health [struggles], and homelessness," Larby said.
These interactions are something Officer Larby says is often missing in police work.
Officer Larby will be stationed in downtown Bangor year-round.