LEWISTON — For their first Operation Hot Spots community meeting, police wanted feedback.

Feedback is what they got. And plenty of it.

The gathering at the Multi-Purpose Center on Wednesday night was lively and well-attended. Nearly 200 people showed up to voice their fear and anger, and to hear what police are going to do about it.

Melissa Little was at her home on Pine Street when bullets started flying in the spring.

“I found my 12-year-old daughter and her 11-year-old friend huddled together and screaming, ‘I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die!” Little told the panel of police, drug agents and prosecutors. “It’s ridiculous. We’ve got to put these criminals behind bars where they belong and keep them there.”

A man who lives near Walnut and Bartlett streets said that neighborhood is overrun with violent criminals.

“I don’t even dare to let my daughter go downstairs by herself,” he said, his voice rising with frustration. “All you find out there are prostitutes and drug dealers. It’s crazy.”

“My house was shot up,” a Horton Street woman said. “The bullets are still in it. Something’s got to be done. This is ridiculous.”

A man who has lived in Lewiston for four decades said all he sees downtown these days are criminals, instead of cops.

“I go to work at 4 a.m. and I’m solicited by prostitutes every morning,” he said. “Until there were gunshots on Horton Street, I hadn’t seen a cop down there for nine years. This city has gone to crap.”

Those on the law enforcement side — and there were many — did not dispute any of it. This was what the meeting was arranged for.

“We need to know: What are you seeing on the streets? What can we do better?” said police Sgt. Robert Ullrich, a coordinator of community efforts such as this one. “We need you to be our ears and our eyes.”

All the way to the top of the department, there was agreement.

“The violence has to stop,” police Chief Michael Bussiere said. “The gunplay has to stop. The drug dealing and the prostitution, it has to stop. People need to feel safe in their homes, and they need to feel safe on the streets.”

Bussiere was the driving force behind Operation Hot Spots, a summerlong effort to crack down on the kind of violence and vice Lewiston has become known for. To achieve that, the chief invited an impressive cast of law enforcers. Agents from the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, and the Central Maine Violent Crime Task Force are regular members of the weekly crime sweep. So are the Auburn Police Department and the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office.

But the Wednesday night meeting was about more than just cops with badges and guns. The panel assembled for the meeting was kind of a who’s who of law enforcement in Maine.

U.S. Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II was there, along with District Attorney Norman Croteau. MDEA Supervisor Matt Cashman was on the panel, as were resident agents in charge of both the Drug Enforcement Administration and ATF. The Attorney General’s Office was represented and a prosecutor from U.S. District Court was on hand, as well.

It was an impressive panel, but there was no sign that the locals were intimidated. One after another stood to share their comments. Few needed the microphone that was passed back and forth. The passion in their thoughts was plenty enough to amplify their words.

“I think our problem lies within our court system,” one young woman offered.

Criminals who are caught and taken to jail are out again a few days later, she said. Even the violent ones never seem to be kept behind bars for long.

“I applaud the Police Department,” she said, “for doing their absolute best with a bad situation.”

The comments kept coming. Downtown residents talked about finding dirty syringes on the streets outside their homes. They talked about strangers offering them crack and about being attacked by people out of their minds on drugs.

Then, of course, there are the shootings, stabbings and other acts of violence that frequently make headlines.

“We’ve gone from being a community,” said the Rev. Doug Taylor, who runs his Jesus Party on Bates Street, “to being a battlefield.”

To most on the panel, the situation in Lewiston is as sad as it is frightening. Many grew up here and always thought of the city as home.

“I don’t want to say that I’m from the government and I’m here to help you,” Delahanty said. “I want to say I’m here because I lived in Lewiston for 57 years. I care what goes on in this community.”

“Lewiston is my home,” said Croteau, the D.A. “You all have a right to feel safe here and to be safe.”

But they don’t, most agreed. One man quipped that instead of deeming the police effort “Operation Hot Spots,” maybe they should have called it “Operation Clean Up the Dirty Lew.”

Chief Bussiere rankled at the appellation, which started with a music video that circulated on YouTube nearly a decade ago.

“I don’t want to hear ‘the Dirty Lew’ anymore,” Bussiere said. “It’s a perception that needs to go away. It’s not the Dirty Lew; it’s an overall damn good city.”

Julia Sleeper, who runs Tree Street Youth on Birch Street, said that in the efforts to track down criminals and put them away, the community as a whole should not overlook an opportunity to improve the next generation. Children, she said, will take cues on how they want to live their lives by watching those around them.

Another woman said prostitutes wouldn’t be operating in the city if men weren’t coming from all over to pay for their services.

“Prostitution is not a victimless crime,” Bussiere said.

In addition to the spread of disease and the public annoyance, he said, money made from prostitution frequently gets funneled back into the local drug trade.

There was complaint after complaint, observation after observation. By and large, it was exactly what the police were looking for.

“And that’s why we’re going to have these conversations again in three months,” Chief Bussiere said. “And again in six months and again next year.”

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