Reviewed and updated October 9, 2026 by the SearchSystems.net editorial team. The arrest counts are the ones the agency reported to the FBI, through 2025. The jail figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data. Every office link was opened and checked against the office's own site between September 24, 2026 and September 30, 2026.
Bangor, Maine, in Penobscot County, has about 32,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and its arrests are reported to the FBI by an agency of its own. An arrest in the city leaves the same records whoever makes it: the arresting agency's report, the record of anyone held at the county jail, and, if the District Attorney files charges, a case in the Penobscot County Superior Court. This guide says who keeps each one, what it costs and who may see it, with the arrest counts the agency reported.
This guide covers who makes arrests, how many arrests, booking and the jail, finding an arrest, copies and common questions.
Related guides: Bangor public records, Penobscot County arrest records, Maine arrest records and Maine inmate search.
Who Makes Arrests in Bangor
The FBI lists Bangor with an arrest reporting agency of its own, filed as Bangor Police Department. It reported 1,768 arrests for 2025. A city is listed separately whether the officers are the city's own or the sheriff's under contract; the FBI's list does not say which.
Outside the city, the Penobscot County Sheriff's Office is the county agency. It reported 508 arrests for 2025.
The FBI's agency list also places one more agency in Penobscot County: the University of Maine at Orono (campus police).
How Many Arrests Bangor Reports
The FBI publishes every agency's monthly arrest counts on the Crime Data Explorer. These are the full-year totals, all offenses, as the FBI held them on October 8, 2026; a year with months missing or not reported is left out.
- Bangor: 1,768 for 2025, 1,700 for 2024, 1,565 for 2023, 1,694 for 2022, 1,747 for 2021 and 2,654 for 2020.
Bangor's 1,768 arrests in 2025 were up 4 percent from 1,700 in 2024.
Through April 2026, Bangor reported 498 arrests, against 567 in the same months of 2025.
Across Penobscot County, the 12 agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 3,398 arrests between them.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Bangor Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Bangor and kept in custody ends up, whichever agency made the arrest, though a city department may hold someone in its own cells first and a person cited and released at the scene is never booked. The jail's record of each person held, with the charges, is a public record of the arrest, and once the person is released or sentenced the record continues in the court file.
On an average day in 2024 the jail held about 140 people, down from about 190 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2019, the last year with a capacity figure, was 157 beds, and it ran at 122 percent of it that year. The figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data.
SearchSystems opened and checked the custody page of the Penobscot County Sheriff's Office at penobscot-sheriff.net/inmates (page title: Inmate Search | Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 24, 2026.
That page is the place to look for someone who was booked recently; a person cited and released at the scene, or held only a few hours by a city department, will not be on it.
A person sentenced to prison serves the sentence in a facility of the Maine Department of Corrections, whose inmate locator is at apps1.web.maine.gov/online/correctionssearch.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Bangor
Whether someone was arrested in Bangor, and what came of it, shows up in three places: the custody page of the Penobscot County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Penobscot County Superior Court, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at courts.maine.gov/courts/superior/penobscot-sc.html, phone (207) 561-2300); the District Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at penobscot-county.net/government/elected_officials/district_attorney..., phone (207) 942-8535).
Maine is one of the states that lets anyone look up another person's statewide criminal history: conviction records are public and can be requested on anyone by name, through the Maine State Police State Bureau of Identification. That record shows what agencies reported to the state, which is wider than one county's court index but can lag it.
Getting a Copy of an Arrest Record in Bangor
The report of an arrest is released by the agency that made it; the jail and the court hold their own records of the same event, but not the report. Under the Maine Freedom of Access Act the agency must answer within a reasonable time, after acknowledging the request within 5 working days, and it may charge staff time after the first two hours, plus copying.
- An arrest by the Bangor police: the police records page SearchSystems verified at bangormaine.gov/701/FOAA-Requests (page title: FOAA Requests | Bangor, ME), phone 207-947-7382, 240 Main Street Bangor, ME 04401, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 26, 2026.
- An arrest by the Penobscot County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney, (207) 942-8535, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Penobscot County Superior Court, through the court records page at courts.maine.gov, phone (207) 561-2300.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
The Penobscot County guide covers every agency in the county: Penobscot County arrest records.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Bangor each year?
Bangor reported 1,768 arrests to the FBI for 2025, its latest full year.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Bangor?
Look on the custody page of the Penobscot County Sheriff's Office at penobscot-sheriff.net/inmates. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in Bangor booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Penobscot County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Bangor?
The court files of criminal cases are public, and so is the statewide criminal history kept by the Maine State Police State Bureau of Identification: conviction records are public and can be requested on anyone by name. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Maine Freedom of Access Act.
How do I get a copy of an arrest report in Bangor?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Bangor police for its own arrests, the Penobscot County Sheriff's Office for the sheriff's. Under the Maine Freedom of Access Act the answer is due within a reasonable time, after acknowledging the request within 5 working days.
Is this the official Bangor website?
No. SearchSystems.net is an independent public records guide, online since 1997. It links to the official city, county, court and state offices described above and does not hold records, charge for them or take requests.