Charlotte ‘took eye off the ball’ after 90s’ crime spike, CMPD’s Putney says 

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney says officers and community partners are doing “fantastic work” to curb the city’s rising violent crime but some solutions will have a delayed payoff — possibly five to 10 years.

Putney, who plans to retire soon but has not announced a specific date, said Friday the city has large-scale community efforts underway to protect the public — similar to the response in Charlotte in the 1990s when murder and violence spiked. But since then, Putney says, “we took our eye off the ball.”

Work being done now, he said, will “pay dividends” over the next decade.

Putney’s comments came Friday morning at CMPD’S annual Safety, Trust and Accountability Report news conference. Police release annual crime statistics at the news conference and recognize the work of individual officers and overall accomplishments of the department and its community partners.

Violent crime increased 12% last year, compared to 2018. Property crime rose by 5%, according to CMPD figures released Friday. Over the same time period, the number of arrests rose 6% and police confiscated 13% more guns this year than last year for a total of 2,067 guns off the street.

Despite CMPD’s 60 crime-fighting programs and 2,500 community meetings in 2019, the number of homicides last year soared above 100 for the first time since the 1990s. The year ended with 107 homicides, police say.

Many of the homicides were over “petty” arguments, Putney said Friday, including over drugs and small amounts of money.

Putney said the community can expect, for the first time, a joint accountability report card later this year from CMPD, the Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s Office and the Mecklenburg County Courts.

“Last month, we got firm commitments from District Attorney Spencer Merriweather and Chief (District Court) Judge (Elizabeth) Trosch,” Putney said.

He said community input will be sought as to what the criminal justice system will be graded on in the report card.

Putney has in the past criticized the dismissal rate from prosecutors of gun charges and the release from jail of suspects awaiting trial on homicide charges. Judges have said the bails they set follow what’s prescribed under state statute.

This story was originally published January 10, 2020 at 12:36 PM.