As Charlotte combats record crime, city leaders turn to data to guide solutions

In a renewed effort to analyze Charlotte’s record violent crime rate, City Council members examined four geographic areas Monday that have been characterized by rapid residential turnover, housing instability and illegal drug activity, among other factors.

Those areas, while comprising less than 2 square miles of CMPD’s jurisdiction, account for 8% of violent crimes.

The presentation, which emphasized data-driven root causes of crime and holistic intervention programs, was intended to spark deeper conversations among council members during their first strategy session of the year.

Many council members already have described the surge in homicides — 108 in 2019, compared to 56 in 2018 — as a public health crisis.

“It can’t just be about policing anymore,” Mayor Vi Lyles said. “It’s just not possible. ... We want to actually figure out how to make change sustainable.”

More than 25% of the homicides committed between 2017 and 2019 stemmed from arguments, including revenge and dispute shootings, said Deputy Chief Gerald Smith of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. Another 20% of homicides were linked to domestic violence, Smith said, with an even split between family and intimate partner crime incidents.

“We cannot do this ourselves,” Smith told the City Council during Monday’s presentation. “Law enforcement and CMPD, we cannot do it ourselves.”

Nine out of every 10 people who committed a homicide were male, and more than 25% had prior felony convictions locally, according to the data.

Meanwhile, three out of every five victims were African Americans, according to the data.

Sites of concentrated crime

Violence was concentrated around clusters leaders call “durable hotspots”: areas around Interstate 85/Sugar Creek, Beatties Ford Road/LaSalle Street, Nations Ford/Arrowood Roads and Sharon Amity Road/Central Avenue.

In the I-85/Sugar Creek hotspot, Smith outlined a pattern of 13 low-budget, cash-only motels, in addition to prostitution, that have contributed to rampant crime there, Smith said.

Other crime clusters, including around Sharon Amity Road and Central Avenue, are partially driven by a heavy immigrant and refugee population with a cultural mistrust of police, Smith said.

Rebecca Hefner, the city’s data and analytics director, outlined other key indicators of violent crime in the community, such as unemployment and poverty levels. Housing code violations, as well as a high density of single-family rental homes, also exacerbate violent crime, Hefner said.

Hefner said the City Council should use a combination of collaborative partnerships, backed by rigorous data, and comprehensive social services to curb violent crime and focus on the most at-risk populations

With that framework, Hefner said, Charlotte can identify “the most effective point of intervention.” It is too early to know how city and Mecklenburg County leaders will work together and share resources to address violent crime moving forward, Lyles said.

Hefner said the region lacks what is known as a violence interruption program, which have gained traction in cities across the U.S. in the last decade. That could include mediation and negotiation tactics offered by community-led groups — and not the police.

The city does, however, have a number of “focused deterrence” and youth programs already in place, according to the presentation.

“We really haven’t done it this way before — that’s where some of these gaps occur,” City Manager Marcus Jones said. “We are truly just beginning to share data at this level.”

This story was originally published January 6, 2020 at 7:40 PM with the headline "As Charlotte combats record crime, city leaders turn to data to guide solutions."