After consecutive weekends with multiple shootings, Fayetteville Police Chief Kemberle Braden delivered his department’s second-quarter report to the City Council on Monday, doing so with the look of someone who has seen many sleepless nights.
Braden addressed the recent gun violence before launching into his report.
“I’ve been asked several questions throughout the day and over the weekend about updates to the violence that has occurred, and I’ll say this: There’s no politically correct way to explain the cycle of violence that we’re going through right now,” Braden said. “I can only tell you about my experience of 28 years of policing and the past couple of months of what I’ve seen and observed as the chief of police. Realistically, the sanctity of life is no longer sacred.”
In addition to the number of incidents of gun violence, Braden said, he has been made aware of an increased amount of tampering with crime scenes, including witnesses taking guns, drugs and other contraband before police arrive. He also said he has seen a decrease in cooperation with the police. Retaliatory violence, he said, has perpetuated the cycle of shootings.
“Today’s victim was often yesterday’s suspect,” Braden told the council. “There’s a culture that’s prevailing in our community of ‘an eye for an eye.’”
Echoing other recent statements made when presenting preliminary crime data, Braden said the past two weeks of violence are not “representative” of the quarterly report. The report, using data from January to June, showed overall crime was down by 12.8% and arrests were up by nearly 27%.
Aggravated assaults, which include gun violence, were down by 10.5 %, with 557 incidents in the first half of this year compared with 622 in the same timeframe last year. Total crimes reported against individuals were down by almost 9% in the first half of this year, even though the number of homicides (29 this year, 24 last year) and rape (44 incidents this year, 36 last year) increased in that timeframe.
Braden also provided a breakdown of the homicide victims and suspects in the first half of this year by race and age.
- Victims: Black males, 18); white males, 3; Black females, 5); white females, 1; native American males, 1; and other males, 1. Adults ages 18 to 25 had the highest number of homicide victims at 28%, followed by ages 36 to 45 at 24%; 26 to 35 at 21%; 18 and younger, 14%; and 46 and older, 10%.
- Suspects: Black males, 18; white males, 4; Black females, 5; white females, 1; and unsolved, 2. Adults ages 26 to 35 were the most suspects at 36%, followed by ages 18-25 at 25%; 36-45 at 18%; 46 and older at 13%; and younger than 18 at 7%.
Homicide detectives posted a clearance rate of 94% including all data from this year, with 32 of 34 homicide cases solved, he said.
Adolescent crime
Juvenile crime included 928 total incidents in the first half of the year, with 94 assaults, two murders and eight attempted murders. In addition, minors committed 25 assaults inflicting serious injury; 11 shootings into occupied property; 5 assaults on law enforcement; 28 attempts to resist, delay or obstruct a government official; 11 attempts to escape police; 94 drug violations; and 54 weapons violations.
“Kids who aren’t even old enough to drive, don’t have a license, don’t even have a learner’s permit, fleeing from the police. … This is the criminal behavior that we have to change, especially with our young juveniles,” Braden said.
He noted that social media encounters often precede acts of violence by young people.
Several council members expressed concern about the violent crimes being committed in adolescents, especially in regard to firearms.
“There is no way, as a mother, that you can imagine what is going on in our city and it is our juveniles,” council member Kathy Jensen said. “We are in a crisis, and we are not going to get out of this crisis by ourselves. … We have got to get the county involved, we have to get the school system involved, and we have to get the hospitals involved.”
Mayor Mitch Colvin said these are “tremendous numbers for a group of people that don’t necessarily have any independence.”
Council members said holding parents accountable for the actions of their children, especially on access to weapons, should be a top priority in addressing the issue.
“The city and the Police Department and the City Council or any governmental body can’t be the No. 1 player in this incident,” Colvin said. “We’ve got to have it at home.”
Braden said he is hoping to work with the council to implement a curfew for minors. He said that minors can text 911 to report a crime anonymously.
Additional crime statistics
According to Braden, property crimes were down by 13.6% in the first six months of this year compared to last year’s first two quarters, but robberies were up by 15.8%. Drug and firearm seizures were higher this year than last year, with the first two quarters showing an increase in every drug type. A total of 573 firearms were seized in the first half of this year, compared to 481 in that timespan last year.
Braden also provided data on two controversial categories — use of force and traffic stops — which included data from January to June. Braden broke down traffic stops by race, searches and “hit rates,” which includes police finding drugs or weapons after a search. He said police need probable cause to search a vehicle after a traffic stop.
“We establish probable cause for the stop, and if any searches are conducted afterward, then probable cause is established to conduct that search or search warrant obtained,” he said.
He presented this data:
- Black: stops, 14,530, or 64%; searches, 624; total hits, 483, or 77.4%; drug hits, 342, or 54.8%.
- White: stops, 7,294, or 32%; searches, 167; total hits, 189, or 65.2%; drug hits, 87, or 52.1%.
- Other: stops, 862, or 4%; data not included for searches and hits.
Council member Mario Benavente, who has advocated for more transparency from police, questioned Braden extensively on the race disparities in the traffic stop data.
“Do you have an explanation for the disparity between 624 searches versus 167 when the results were effectively the same?” Benavented asked. “It’s not like one group is known for having drugs in their car more often.”
Braden reaffirmed that probable cause is needed to conduct a search, but he did not address the racial disparity.
“So whenever probable cause was generated based on the officer’s observations, what they observed, what they smelled, what they saw, searches were conducted,” said Braden, who acknowledged that there were about 37 searches where probable cause, in retrospect, could not be demonstrated .
Braden also presented data on use-of-force incidents. From January to June of this year, police had 38 such incidents; that’s 10 more than reported last year in this time frame. There were 42 internal department investigations in the first two quarters of this year, which is significantly higher than the 23 recorded in the first half of last year. Resident complaints were slightly lower than last year, with 21 complaints from January to June in 2023 compared to 29 in the same time last year.
Opioid epidemic
After Braden’s presentation, he shared the podium with Gregory Perkins, a volunteer chaplain with the Police Department who oversees the Faith in Action program that was established to combat the opioid epidemic by connecting people who have been through addiction with 26 church organizations that have supplied a volunteer for what Perkins described as a “street ministry.”
“The chief had this vision about how he could improve the dynamics of officer interaction with individuals who potentially were doing harmful things to themselves, particularly as it relates to a drug overdose and overdose epidemic,” Perkins said. “He identified for us in a meeting three specific areas across the city where the incidents were greater for overdose.”
Overall, Perkins said, Faith in Action was able to hold four street outreach efforts on Murchison Road. During that time, its volunteers made a total of 306 contacts, provided 78 people with Narcan, and connected seven people with faith alternatives. It also provided meals for anyone who engaged with the program. At one point, the organization ran out of food and a volunteer bought 100 hamburgers for people from McDonald’s.
Perkins said that is an example of how the entire community, not just police, can work together to improve public safety.
“This is a public health crisis,” Perkins said about the opioid epidemic. “This is not a law enforcement crisis. Quit beating up our law enforcement and public safety officers and get involved and let’s get some help.”
The audience erupted in applause after Perkins’ comments.
“Dr. Perkins, we approve the message,” Colvin said.
Contact local government reporter Evey Weisblat at eweisblat@cityviewnc.com.)
