CMPD: Charlotte crime on the rise

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said Friday that crime is up compared with last year.

Crimes reported from January through June are up for the majority of categories compared with the same time period last year, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Deputy Chief Jeff Estes said at a news briefing.

Violent crime increased by 12.3 percent, while property crime was up 5.6 percent. The biggest increase was in homicides, which increased from 20 last year at this time, to 28 this year – an increase of 40 percent.

Burglaries increased by 8.3 percent and robberies dropped almost 1.3 percent, but robberies will continue to be a target of the CMPD.

“Robberies is one of our focus areas right now,” Estes said.

There were 996 vehicle thefts, an increase of over 31 percent from last year. CMPD found that a lot of the thefts could have been prevented.

“Almost half of the cars that are stolen have the keys in them,” Estes said.

The CMPD also announced the second phase of the Be SMART larceny project that includes undercover officers dropping a card near an unattended purse or phone when the owner isn’t looking.

“When people are out and about, sometimes we get inattentive and leave items of value out,” Estes said. “That’s a big part of our larceny problem.”

This story was originally published August 14, 2015 at 1:16 PM with the headline "CMPD: Charlotte crime on the rise."