How to Get a Police Report in Maine (2026 Guide)

Maine crash reports are ordered through an online search-and-order service run by the Department of Public Safety, while a general incident report is requested under Maine's Freedom of Access Act (FOAA) and a separate law enforcement records statute. Maine is also one of a handful of states with no dedicated body camera statute at all, a fact that a number of outside websites get wrong. This page covers both report types and sets the record straight on bodycam access.

Information last verified on 2026-08-11. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

Getting a Crash Report in Maine

The primary channel for a Maine crash report is the Maine Crash Reporting Online Search and Ordering Service, run through the state's online portal. The report must be complete, meaning the investigation is closed, before it can be ordered this way. If you need a report that predates 2003, or prefer not to use the online service, you can request it by mail or fax from the Maine State Police Traffic Division at 36 Hospital Street, Augusta, or by phone at (207) 624-8944.

The fee is a flat $10.00, described by the state as a non-refundable administrative search fee that is charged even if no matching report turns up. The crash-report FAQ page the state publishes does not state a firm turnaround time for online orders; treat any specific hours-based estimate you see elsewhere as unconfirmed and check current processing times with the Traffic Division directly.

Two different rules inside 29-A M.R.S. Section 2251 govern access, and they are easy to confuse. Subsection 7-A applies to data contained in an accident report database maintained, administered or contributed to by the Department of Public Safety, Bureau of State Police, and it defines that data as information existing in an electronic medium and contained in that database. It restricts dissemination of personally identifying accident report data, such as names, addresses, license numbers and plate numbers, while allowing nonpersonally identifying data to be released. That is a rule about the electronic database, not about the report document itself.

The report document is addressed by subsection 7, which opens the relevant sentences with the words "Notwithstanding subsection 7-A." Under that subsection the Chief of the State Police may disclose the date, time and location of the accident and the names and addresses of operators, owners, injured persons, witnesses and the investigating officer, and on written request the chief may furnish a photocopy of the investigating officer's report at the expense of the person making the request. The statute therefore contemplates release of a report copy along with those identifying fields, rather than barring them. The operative word is "may," so the written-request channel is permissive: what limits a request for someone else's crash report is agency discretion over that channel, not a subsection 7-A prohibition. For more on fault rules and deadlines after a Maine crash, see our Maine car accident laws page.

Getting an Incident Report in Maine

Maine's law enforcement records confidentiality does not live inside the general Freedom of Access Act itself. Instead, it sits in a standalone law, the Intelligence and Investigative Record Information Act, 16 M.R.S. Section 804. That statute provides that, except as provided in sections 805-A and 806, a record that is or contains intelligence and investigative record information is confidential and may not be disseminated by a Maine criminal justice agency to any person or public or private entity if there is a reasonable possibility that public release or inspection of the record would cause one of 12 enumerated harms, such as interfering with a law enforcement proceeding, constituting an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, or endangering the life or physical safety of any person. That condition is the part most summaries drop, and it matters: Section 804 is a harm-tested exemption rather than a blanket exemption for police records, so an agency withholding a record should be able to identify which of the enumerated harms is reasonably possible. The general FOAA, Title 1, only cross-references records that another statute makes confidential; Section 804 is that other statute for most law enforcement investigative material.

A request for a local agency's incident report is made to that agency under the general FOAA process, with Section 804 supplying the substantive basis an agency would cite to withhold an investigative record where it can point to a reasonable possibility of one of those harms. FOAA itself requires the agency or official to acknowledge receipt of the request within five working days, and to provide a good-faith, nonbinding estimate of both the time it will take to comply and the likely cost, within a reasonable time after that. There is no fixed statutory deadline for producing the records themselves; production must occur within a reasonable period of time given the estimate provided. For the state's broader open-records framework, see our Maine public records laws page.

Body Camera Footage in Maine: No Statewide Statute

Maine does not have a dedicated body camera access or disclosure statute, and this is worth stating plainly because a specific wrong citation circulates online. Several advocacy and law-firm websites cite "25 M.R.S. Section 3842," describing it as a law requiring officers to wear body cameras effective January 1, 2021. That section does not exist in Maine's actual statutes.

The underlying bill was LD 636 (SP0198) in the 129th Legislature, titled An Act to Require Law Enforcement Officers to Wear Body Cameras. Rather than becoming law, the bill was amended into a resolve establishing a work group to study body camera use, and that resolve died at the end of the 129th Legislature in November 2020. It was never enacted as Public Law.

Because Maine has no dedicated bodycam statute, deployment and footage disclosure are governed by agency policy, backstopped by the general FOAA process and the Section 804 investigative-records rule described above, the same framework that governs any other investigative record. If a Maine agency has adopted body cameras, whether and how quickly footage is released depends on that agency's own policy and on whether the agency can identify one of the Section 804 harms, most often interference with an active investigation. For more on how Maine's absence of a dedicated statute plays out, see our Maine body camera laws page and the cluster guide on how to request body camera footage.

Other Practical Notes

No independently verified statewide procedure for correcting a completed Maine crash report was located; if you believe a report contains an error, contact the Maine State Police Traffic Division directly. For general guidance on filing a new report or reading a completed one, see how to file a police report and how to read a police report. If a case tied to the incident proceeds through the courts, related filings are available through Maine court records.

Disclaimer

This article provides general legal information about public-records access in the state named above. It is not legal advice, does not create an attorney-client relationship, and should not be relied on as a substitute for advice from a licensed attorney about a specific situation. Fees, forms, and processing times change; confirm current figures with the listed agency before relying on them.

Last updated: 2026-08-11. Fees and portals reflect their published status as of August 2026.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I get a copy of my Maine crash report?

Order it online through the Maine Crash Reporting Online Search and Ordering Service once the report is complete, or request it by mail or fax from the Maine State Police Traffic Division. The fee is a flat $10.00, charged even if no matching report is found.

Can I get a copy of someone else's Maine crash report?

Possibly. 29-A M.R.S. Section 2251, subsection 7 provides that, notwithstanding the subsection 7-A database restriction, the Chief of the State Police may disclose the date, time and location of the accident and the names and addresses of operators, owners, injured persons, witnesses and the investigating officer, and on written request may furnish a photocopy of the investigating officer's report at the requester's expense. That authority is permissive, so the outcome turns on how the State Police exercise it rather than on a flat statutory bar.

Does Maine require police officers to wear body cameras?

No. Maine has no statewide law requiring body cameras or governing their disclosure. A bill that would have created one, LD 636, died in the Legislature in 2020 and was never enacted.

Is 25 M.R.S. Section 3842 a real Maine bodycam law?

No. That citation, which appears on some advocacy and law-firm websites, does not correspond to an actual section of the Maine statutes. The bill it was based on never became law.

How do I request a Maine police incident report?

Request it from the responding agency under Maine's Freedom of Access Act. The agency must acknowledge your request within five working days and provide a good-faith estimate of the time and cost to comply. Investigative material may be withheld under 16 M.R.S. Section 804 only where there is a reasonable possibility that release would cause one of the 12 harms that section lists, such as interfering with a law enforcement proceeding or invading personal privacy.

Is Maine bodycam footage a public record?

There is no dedicated statute answering that question. Because Maine has no bodycam-specific law, a request for footage runs through the general FOAA process and the Section 804 investigative-records rule, the same framework used for any other law enforcement record, and the outcome depends on the agency's own policy and on whether the agency can identify a reasonable possibility of one of the harms Section 804 lists.