(The Center Square) – An annual summary of crime for 2022 shows that while rates have declined slightly from the year prior, crime remains high and some areas of the state are seeing significant increases.
It’s a trend law enforcement leaders contend is tied to the defund the police movement that has taken a toll on officer morale in recent years, convincing some to drop out of the profession and others to move from urban to rural areas.
“The defund the police movement has caused great harm in the system,” North Carolina Police Benevolent Association Executive Director John Midgette told The Center Square.
Data from the Annual Summary Report of 2022 Uniform Crime Reporting Data, recently released by the State Bureau of Investigation, shows overall crime is down 1.4% from 2021. There are declines in violent crime and property crimes, with the exception of a 0.2% increase in larcenies and a 6.6% increase in motor vehicle thefts.
The murder rate declined 14%, rapes were down 3%, robberies declined 2.7% and aggravated assaults went down 3.9%. That data, however, follows two years of murders increasing by double digits – up 23% in 2020 and 18.3% in 2021, and mixed results in other categories.
Geographically, crime went up the most in Greenville – 18% higher than the previous year. Next was Cary (15%), Fayetteville (14%), Raleigh (7%), Charlotte-Mecklenburg (5%) and Greensboro (3%). The largest declines were in Gaston County (21%), Buncombe County (15%), Iredell County (10%) and Concord (7%).
“Overall, while there has been a slight decrease from 2021, if you go back to the 1990s crime has increased across the board,” Midgette said. While much of the data is reported on a county basis, “larger metro areas better show the gravity of the problem,” he said.
A turning point, Midgette says, followed the death of George Floyd, a Fayetteville native who was killed in a police altercation in Minneapolis in May 2020. Midgette says that sparked a shift in the public’s perception of police and the defund the police movement.
While the latter has not resulted in widespread budget cuts in North Carolina, Midgette says it created a “false narrative” that created a “morale situation the likes of which I’ve never seen.”
“After a very terrible tragedy … the narrative was all police officers were systemic racists,” he said, effectively erasing significant progress in police race relations since the 1970s. “I think it just devastated the law enforcement community.
“In the 45 years I’ve been in law enforcement, I’ve never seen law enforcement kicked in the stomach like they are now.”
The fallout is evident in the data, as well as large vacancy rates in police stations across the state, a situation created by city politicians who have implemented policies that handcuff law enforcement leaders, he said.
Nationwide, resignations increased by 18% and retirements by nearly 50% between 2020 and 2021. Numerous North Carolina cities have had more than 100 vacancies in recent years, including Raleigh, Winston-Salem, Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Durham, Greensboro, Asheville, and others, according to the UNC School of Government and published reports.
“The (city police) chiefs are being told what is going to happen, rather than allowing them to run their departments,” Midgette said. “Now the vast majority of officers leaving the bigger cities are looking for law enforcement opportunities in (rural) communities that do support them.”
Other trends involve a significant rise in juvenile crime, which was up 113% for murders in 2022 versus 2018; 22% for rape; and 43% for motor vehicle thefts among those aged 16 and under, according to the state report.
Midgette attributed that trend to Raise the Age laws approved in 2017 and 2019 that meant 16- and 17-year-olds are not automatically charged as an adult in the system.
“Juveniles know they can’t be touched,” he said, adding that the issue is compounded by “the influx of drugs and a lack of a system to accommodate” juvenile offenders.
“The greatest problem officers are facing right now, it’s the increase in juvenile crime that’s also fostered by organized crime,” Midgette said.
