While six of the ten largest cities in North Carolina experienced an increase in crime in 2023, Fayetteville’s rate declined by 8% — a decrease second only to Winston-Salem’s rate.
That downward trend has continued in 2024, according to Police Chief Kemberle Braden, who presented crime statistics from January through September of this year at Monday’s city council meeting. Total crime this year is down by 5%, Braden said, with 10,460 incidents recorded in the first three quarters of 2024.
The police department projects a total of 13,500 incidents by the end of the year, which would be the lowest number of crimes the city has seen in the past decade. Violent crime is also expected to reach its lowest point in a decade, according to Braden’s report.
In addition, homicides are down by 57%, with 16 confirmed homicides in the first three quarters of the year. This contrasts with the 37 incidents that were recorded at this time last year, culminating in a record number of 52 homicides at the end of 2023. Other violent crimes, including rape and aggravated assault, are down by about 20% and 29%, respectively.
“This is a report that the entire city should be proud of,” Council Member Derrick Thompson said after the chief’s presentation. “This is a report that all of our citizens [that] are looking towards you to keep them safe, I’m pretty sure they are applauding at this time.”
Braden attributed the decrease in homicides to the department’s increased efforts to address domestic violence, which he said accounted for a quarter of homicides the police department investigated last year. One major effort includes the police department’s continued partnership with The Phoenix Center, the city’s rape crisis center. FPD made 1,420 referrals to The Phoenix Center, Braden said, and 20% of those referred received follow-up services. The Phoenix Center assisted 62 individuals with obtaining domestic violence protection orders in the first three quarters of 2024.
“As we talk about what we’ve done to deal with domestic violence, I think that has a great impact on the numbers that we’re seeing, especially for our homicide [rate],” Braden said.
Public safety concerns
While crime is decreasing on the whole, the city has seen some marked increases in certain incidents and demographics. Crimes relating to theft, for example, have increased among youth, with assaults, incidents of breaking and entering, motor vehicle theft and robbery already surpassing last year’s numbers in this demographic.
In addition, traffic-related deaths are on the rise. There have been 26 fatal car crashes compared to 21 fatalities this time last year. Braden said FPD is placing an emphasis on traffic safety enforcement through increasing traffic stops.
Eleven pedestrians were killed in the first three quarters of 2024, compared to five pedestrian deaths at this time last year. The deaths are underscored by a recent viral video demonstrating Fayetteville’s walkability problems, despite the city’s recent efforts to address pedestrian safety through an updated pedestrian plan. Braden said the police department is working to curb these deaths by producing informational content for the public.
“If you go to our Facebook page or our Instagram or any of our social media sites, you’ll see the traffic units heavily focused on traffic safety PSAs where they talked about how to cross the street, how to adjust the clothing you wear when you’re walking along the roadways at night,” Braden said. “So we’re really focusing on trying to make our city streets a safer place to commute.”
Update on School Resource Officers
Since the start of the public school year, the police department has managed security for 49 Cumberland County Schools located within the city limits. As per its August agreement with CCS, FPD has provided six SROs to cover the nine high schools in Fayetteville, and Braden said the department has three more SROs in the hiring process to fulfill its contractual obligations of providing an SRO to each of the nine high schools in the city by Jan. 1. The police department has also filled 64 part-time traffic control officers in accordance with the contract terms.
In the first month of service at schools — recorded as part of Braden’s January through September crime report — Fayetteville police responded to 450 calls and filed nearly 100 reports. Based on this data, the department projects over 4,000 calls for service and almost 1,000 new crime reports for the 2024-2025 school year, Braden said. Elementary schools have accounted for the highest number of service calls at 184, closely followed by high schools at 172 and middle schools at 93.
As the City of Fayetteville continues to fulfill its one-year contract with CCS, it is also working with the policy research group, the Science Policy Action Network (SPAN), to develop a holistic approach to the SRO program that will inform a long-term agreement with CCS. The study kicked off in October and is expected to conclude by the end of 2025, SPAN researchers said at Monday’s council meeting. It will cost $99,000, the funding for which will come from the city’s Office of Community Safety budget as part of the new office’s youth engagement focus, according to city documents.
The study will develop SRO contract recommendations for high schools, elementary and middle schools, and is based on Wake County’s SRO model that implements a comprehensive approach to public safety through means like engaging social workers and families in addition to SROs.
“The overarching goal of the process is to collaboratively develop a framework for the SRO program that not only maintains safety within the schools but supports the comprehensive approach to violence reduction in the City,” states the document about the study.
Contact Evey Weisblat at eweisblat@cityviewnc.com or 216-527-3608. This story was made possible by donations from readers like you to CityView News Fund, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization committed to an informed democracy in Fayetteville and Cumberland County.
I think Chief Bradon has started to improve the moral of the department after the previous chief. He is allowing the police officers to do their job.