With killings on the rise, CMPD chief calls for more funds for community youth groups
With one month left in the year and the number of homicides in Charlotte at 98, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney is calling for more money for community groups that focus on youth outreach.
“What we know what works,” Putney said in an interview Monday. “That’s investing in the community programs that already exist in the city … so that we’re teaching our young people to make better choices.”
Charlotte has seen an unusually high number of homicides this year. In 2018, there were 58 homicides and the 10-year average falls around 63. The last time the city had 100 homicides was in 1993.
Other types of violent crime have also increased. Crime statistics from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30 show an 11% increase in violent crime compared to the same time period in 2018.
Around UNC Charlotte, in CMPD’s University City Division, there was a particularly high spike in violent crime with a 37% increase so far this year. Putney said the area is a “target rich environment” with 30,000 students living there.
The University City Division also includes neighborhoods and businesses along W.T. Harris Boulevard and North Tryon Street.
Most of the people charged in violent crime in Charlotte are young men between ages 18 and 24, Putney said.
“Right now we’re having young people — just like last year and the year before — make bad choices, minor conflicts like relational issues … somebody owing somebody else $20 and then a life is lost,” he said.
However, officers have also increased their productivity, Putney said, pointing to increases in gun seizures and arrests of violent crime offenders. The department’s clearance rate — the percentage of offenses where a suspect is identified or arrested — is around 80 percent, above the national average, he said.
However, the first challenge is to keep the crimes from happening to begin with, Putney said.
Cops and Barbers in Charlotte
Programs that mentor young people and prevent them from committing crime are not getting enough attention and funding, Putney said. One example he offered: Cops and Barbers in East Charlotte.
The program seeks to build relationships between young African-American men and law enforcement as well as provide a trade for recent high school graduates, said Shaun Corbett, who started the program in 2015.
“These kids are coming from communities with alcohol and household abuse and we give them an opportunity to set a different route,” he said.
So far, interested applicants outnumber the available funding for the program. Corbett said Cops and Barbers tries to support a minimum of five students a year, though there are at least 25 students interested.
It takes $8,500 to support one student, he said. The bulk of the money goes to tuition to train the students to become barbers, though the money also goes toward books, bus passes and other expenses.
“The hard part of fundraising is trying to get someone who’s never experienced some of the things I’ve experienced,” Corbett said.
Year to year fundraising from grants and private donors is unreliable, he said. A grant might be available one year and not the next.
“It shouldn’t be that way because money exists right now in the city and county to fund some of these programs for the next few years,” Putney said.
This story was originally published November 25, 2019 at 6:05 PM.
