Personal crime increased slightly and property crimes rose by nearly 13% in 2022, Fayetteville’s new police chief told the City Council last week.
The Fayetteville Police Department presented city crime statistics for last year, showing an increase over 2021 in crimes against persons and property but a slight decrease in homicides.
Police Chief Kemberle Braden led the presentation last Monday, his first since being sworn into the position last month.
Crimes against persons increased by 1.9% in 2022, and property crimes increased by 12.9%. The overall crime increase was 9.9%, the statistics show.
Each classification under property crimes — burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft and robbery — increased in 2022.
Fayetteville is not unique in increasing crime. Braden cited crime data from other cities in North Carolina, such as Raleigh, Durham, Greensboro and Winston-Salem, that show a similar trend in crime.
“The trend lines tend to show what is happening not just in the city of Fayetteville, but it's something that's reflective of our community as a whole in our peer cities across the state of North Carolina,” Braden said.
Homicides and assault
Fayetteville police reported 44 homicides in the city in 2022, a decrease from the 48 reported in 2021.
What drove up the rate for overall personal crime was the 4.5% increase in aggravated assault reports.
Domestic violence was also a concern. Out of the 44 homicides reported last year, nine were attributed to domestic violence as a possible motive, the most of any other classification. Arguments and ongoing disputes ranked second and third at seven incidents and five, respectively.
Your support for CityView helps ensure a more informed community. Donate today.
Braden said the department may need to reevaluate its process to prevent domestic violence from escalating to homicide.
“If we treat domestic violence from a victim-centered approach, we need to take a look at what does the victim want to do with certain situations. But it's incumbent on us sometimes to step in, intervene, to make sure that violence doesn't escalate,” Braden said.
The racial demographics related to homicides were of concern to Mayor Mitch Colvin. Of the 44 victims and suspects in homicides last year, 33 and 34, respectively, were Black.
“As a Black male, I’m sitting here looking now at 31 Black male suspects and 25 Black male victims,” Colvin said. “That’s a factor that I think we’ve got to talk about a little bit more as a community.”
The mayor said it is not just up to the police to address that trend but for the council as well.
“The community investment, the programs that we need,” Colvin said. “I’m hoping, council, as we start allocating resources, that we’d be very intentional on putting the resources where the need is.”
Use of force
In 2022, there were 72 reports of police officers using force against residents, an increase from 60 the year before. The classification use of force ranges from K-9 bites to tasing and gunshots.
Out of those 72 cases, 49 involved Black people, or 68% of all cases. That is despite the fact that Black people make up about 42% of the city’s population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Councilman Mario Benavente voiced concern about the disproportionate statistics.
“The fact that Black citizens are four times, almost four times, more likely to have force used against them than white residents,” Benavente said. “That’s still a large factor that ought to be considered as a whole.”
Braden said the uniqueness of each incident has to be considered, a lesson he said he has learned in bias training.
“One of the first things we’re taught is that equal opportunity doesn’t guarantee equal outcomes. If 40 and 40 is the percentage breakdown on the population, that doesn’t mean we’re going to have 40% use of force for one, 40% use of force for the other,” Braden said. “The uniqueness of each scenario has to be taken into consideration to find out whether that particular instance was reasonable and justified.”
Traffic stops
Braden also presented traffic stop numbers for 2022. Out of the 23,204 citations issued by Fayetteville police last year, 13,921 — or 60% — were issued to Black residents, disproportionate with the population rate of 42% Black.
In the recent past, concerns about racially motivated traffic stops have stirred controversy.
In 2012, a study found that 75% of vehicles searched by Fayetteville police officers during a traffic stop were driven by Black residents, The Fayetteville Observer reported.
City Manager Douglas Hewett said at last Monday’s council meeting that the city reviews traffic-stop data closely, particularly for the reason and location of each traffic stop.
“We cannot go back to where we were, and so we want to be very vigilant,” Hewett said. “We invite your questions. We invite the community’s questions because we cannot do this if we don’t have full trust of the community.”
According to traffic stop statistics reported to the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation in 2022, 80% of drivers and passengers searched by Fayetteville police officers during a traffic stop were Black residents. Among only drivers, the rate was 81%.
“City manager just said that we don’t want to go back to where we were. The reality is that we pull Black drivers over in Fayetteville even more so than we did in 2012,” Benavente said. “I can’t accept that we don’t want to go back to where we were when we’re already worse than where we were.”
Ben Sessoms covers Fayetteville and education for CityView. He can be reached at bsessoms@cityviewnc.com.
