Burglaries jump 16 percent in rural Maine

Prescription drug abuse cited as cause

STATE — Drug use is the driving factor behind an increase in rural crime rates, say state and local law enforcement officials.

In just one year, prescription drug abuse has helped to fuel a 16 percent increase in burglaries in rural towns.

Numbers released by the Maine Department of Public Safety last week show a 3.6 percent increase in crime rate across the state.

"Even though Maine continues to be one of the safest states in the country, the increases in robbery, burglary and theft are all a result of drugs," said Public Safety Commissioner John Morris in a press release. "In addition to cocaine and heroin, Maine has seen significant increases in the abuse of prescription medication and that demand leads to burglaries and robberies to feed the state's drug habits."

The state-wide increase has had the most significant effect on "rural" areas, defined by Public Safety as those without full-time police departments. While "urban" areas, those with their own police force, have seen only a .3 percent rate increase, those patrolled by state police or county sheriff's departments experienced a 14 percent jump from 2009 to 2010.

While county-by-county statistics have yet to be released, Oxford Sheriff Wayne Gallant says that towns like Paris, Norway, and Oxford, despite having their own police departments, share characteristics with rural areas that make them similarly susceptible to crime.

"I would safely say that all of Oxford County, even our towns, are rural towns," said Gallant.

Paris Police Chief David Verrier says that his department has been busy with increased burglaries and does not anticipate a change.

"There are a lot of young people who are using pills now and to support that costly habit they're breaking into cars and they're stealing things," said Verrier. "We're anticipating a very busy summer in this area. We are all hoping for the best but the way that we have seen things go locally, all of us have been extremely busy."

The statistics show the sharpest increase has been in burglaries, increasing by 8.6 percent statewide and 16 percent in rural areas. Gallant says that rural areas are targeted by a more transient set of criminals who seek out seasonal and camp homes in areas where they are less likely to be seen, such as near lakes or down back roads.

"I think that you're going to find that a lot of them are from urban areas who travel out," said Gallant. "We have a more mobile criminal element out there than we had years before. It used to be that most of your burglaries were local but that's not the case any more."

Gallant concurred with the state's assessment that drug use was the driving factor behind the burglaries.

"The newest trend of drug addiction is prescription pills. The addiction rate must be extremely high because we interview more people that come in here for, say a burglary, and you can see their body is suffering because they're in  withdrawal and they need a fix," said Gallant. "... It's an easy way to get the money if you go spend 20 minutes to a half-hour stripping copper and you go to a junkyard."