A police detail assigned to Peirce Park outside the Bangor Public Library in May cost $2,219, according to city spokesperson David Warren.
That money was spent over eight days at an average of $277 per day — far lower than the up to $680 per day initially estimated. The cost is a tiny fraction of the overall police budget, which totaled $15.7 million in the previous fiscal year.
Bangor’s police department added the detail in early May following complaints from the public about an increasing number of homeless residents camping out in the park after winter warming centers closed for the season. For years, the library and surrounding park have been a flashpoint in debates over who the city’s public spaces belong to amid its homelessness crisis.
City staff at the time planned to add hours for one police officer per day to monitor the park and intervene when observing illegal behaviors such as drug use, camping on city property or improper waste disposal.
The detail was assigned for about four hours per day on May 1-2, May 4-7, May 12 and May 15, according to a cost breakdown Warren provided to the Bangor Daily News.
It ended several days after the Bangor City Council passed an ordinance banning the storage of belongings on sidewalks, effectively dispersing the group of people who had been putting up temporary shelters like tarps and tents on the sidewalk near the library. Homelessness has been significantly less visible in the park since then.