Raleigh's police chief shares summer crime statistics

I'm the proud chief of police here for the capital

city Raleigh Police Department

The Raleigh Police Department remains deeply committed to transparency accountability

and strengthening our relationship with the community that we serve

Raleigh is a very vibrant growing city that attracts residents

visitors and businesses and it's our job to ensure we

remain safe and welcoming for all

I'm pleased to report that we're seeing continued progress in

key crime categories

Violent crime year to date is flat

No increase in violent crime from this time last year

to today

Homicides we're seeing no change in homicides robberies are down

6%

Aggravated assaults are down 7%

In regards to property crime here in the capital city

I'm proud to say property crime is down 12%

Commercial burglaries up 3% residential burglaries down 14%

Larceny are down 3%

Largely for motor vehicles are down 19%

And our motor vehicle thefts are down 27%

And if I may take a moment to highlight the

motor vehicle thefts being down 27%

You guys our media partners are reported out on our

auto theft task force and how effective they have been

here in the capital city

Since being selected chief I've made this unit a permanent

unit here in our detective division

And the men and women that are assigned to that

auto theft task force have worked very vigorously to reduce

violent crime in our city and that reduction in 27%

highlight their great work

Our officers here in Raleigh are responding to more calls

for service

They're initiating more interactions with our community in a proactive

manner

And this high level of engagement is helping to keep

crime down here in the capital city

I do want to take a moment to personally thank

the men and women of the Raleigh Police Department for

their hard work and their dedication each and every day

in making sure this city remains safe

With all the positive numbers that I just shared about

crime violent crime being flat no increase in our property

crime being down 12%

The one area that is a challenge for us is

our noise ordinance violations

We've seen an increase here in the summer with our

noise ordinance violations

In response we're working closely with city leadership

City manager's office the city council the mayor

As well as we're deploying saturation patrols to address loud

vehicles and excessive noise especially in our high traffic areas

Here in the past two months we've been very proactive

in having two operation noise nuisance noise operations where Raleigh

police officers are focusing on those modified mufflers on vehicles

as well as motorcycles and other loud uh vehicles traveling

through our on our roadways

These operations have been very successful and they're going to

continue throughout the year

So while we're here you guys have the summer action

plan

Probably wondering like what is it why does it exist

After being selected as the chief of police I met

with the city manager and I laid out my plan

and my vision for keeping this city safe

When I came on in March I knew it was

important to go ahead and proactively put a plan together

to address crime in the summer months

Historically we see more events during the months of June

July and August as well as we have more visitors

in our city

And of course we have our kids that are out

of school

And they're out and about more frequently in our city

So I laid out a plan with the city manager

that the Raleigh Police Department was gonna focus on 4

core areas here in the city

That we've seen increased activity during those 3 months

Those 4 areas include our nightlife and event locations

Our parks and greenways

In our transportation hubs around the Go Raleigh station

As well as the roads and the streets around our

clubs and our bars

It's important as a chief of police that I be

very strategic about the resources that I have and I

place them in areas where we can reduce crime

That was the premise of creating the summer action plan

so every member of the Raleigh Police Department would know

exactly what we're going to be doing during the months

of June July and August

With transparency being one of my priorities I thought it

was important as well to put a plan together and

to make sure that this plan is shared with our

community so they can see exactly where we're gonna be

during the summer months

From those four key areas

I then refer back to my strategic priorities

Of operational efficiency crime reduction and community engagement

With operational efficiency the first thing I did was I

revamped and I reorganized our hospitality unit in our hospitality

district which encompasses our Glenwood South corridor our Fall Street

corridor our transit mall around Wilmington Street and Blunt Street

I assigned a new captain to oversee this hospitality district

As well as a lieutenant 4 sergeants and a host

of officers

Those officers that are assigned to the hospitality district

Were placed in our transit mall and they were given

or provided

Equipment more specifically a recon e-bikes

So that they can quickly respond to calls for service

in our central business district as well as patrol and

monitor our parking decks in the downtown area

I'm glad to say that we also started a bike

unit

2 full-time bike units in the hospitality district

As well as two hospitality teams that work on Friday

and Saturday nights in the areas of Glenwood South and

Fer Street

This structure allowed us to be visible and to be

present

It also allowed us to respond quickly to calls for

service

But more importantly it allowed us to build relationships with

our local businesses downtown as well as our residents

The new structure also aligns with The partnership that we

have with the downtown Raleigh Alliance and our safety ambassadors

that work alongside RPD to continue to keep this area

safe downtown

Next crime reduction

In our strategic enforcement activities

Raleigh Intelligence Center has been instrumental in helping helping us

predict and prevent crime

We're using strategic we're using data to strategically deploy officers

when they need it most

Just as importantly we stayed in close communication with community

stakeholders

And I mention one and I'll highlight again our great

partnership with the Downtown Raleigh Alliance in our core business

district

Our safety ambassadors are very responsive in providing a high

level of visibility

To create a sense of safety downtown

As your chief I want you to know that I

hear you I see you and I support you

I'm gonna do all I can within my authority to

make sure I use our crime fighting tools to keep

this city safe

Next is community engagement another strategic priority of mine

I'm very passionate about community engagement

This is something that as a young officer uh that

helped me be effective in reducing crime as I was

a beat officer and I carry that same work ethic

throughout my career and now that I'm the chief community

engagement

is very important to the Raleigh Police Department

Our commitment to community engagement is stronger than ever

With crime being down I'm very proud to say community

engagement is up

You're probably asking how is it up What are you

doing chief to increase community engagement I will say Cops

on the Block

I'm sure you guys have heard of that initiative quite

a while since I've been selected the chief

We're going to continue with our cops on the Block

initiatives in each of our 6 police districts here in

the capital city

This is an opportunity for my officers and my personnel

to interact with the community when there's nothing going on

We're able to have meaningful dialogue about strategies or coming

up with strategies to keep our city safe

The community has been very appreciative of this initiative and

I'm proud to say it will just it will continue

beyond the summer months

Next was our Raleigh hoop nights

This was an opportunity for our youth to interact play

basketball with members of the Raleigh Police Department on Friday

nights here in the capital city

We hosted 5 hoot night events at our local community

centers to include Biltmore Hills Meet Road Chavis Park Green

Road Park and Roberts Park

This was very successful

We had a large turnout of youth as well as

parents that came along brought their kids and had a

great time interacting with members of the Raleigh Police Department

while we engaged in a fun and friendly basketball competition

here

On Friday nights in the capital city

Year after year the Raleigh Police Department also hosts many

summer camps for our youth here in the city

I'm proud to say we hosted 13 summer camps throughout

the summer

To include basketball baseball tennis pickleball and for the first

year first year ever we had a girls STEM camp

during the summer

We were able to reach over 700 youth that participated

in our summer camps

This is very important to me and very passionate to

me because it what it created was an opportunity for

our youth to just be a youth

As well as do it in a safe place

They didn't have to worry about their safety

All they focused on was just being a kid

And having an opportunity to do what they enjoy doing

and being safe

I'm very proud and very passionate about our work or

the work that we do during the summer with our

youth

And also I have a message for our youth

I want you to know through these initiatives that you're

seeing that you're supported and that you're valued

And we're gonna continue to provide these summer camps during

those months of June July and August year after year

after year

When it comes to community engagement it's like where do

we go from here What's next chief voice How are

you gonna sustain The high level and the higher interaction

of community engagement

Well I'm proud to say We're starting to launch our

community police academy come October 2nd

This ended some years ago right after uh right during

COVID

We had to shut down our Citizens Police Academy

And now 5 years later I'm proud to say that

we are starting up our community policing academy

And notice the difference between the citizen and community

This is an opportunity for every member of our community

to learn about what we do here at Raleigh Police

Department

No matter what part of town no matter what you

look like

We're gonna be transparent and we're gonna show you exactly

what we do each and every day so our community

can have a greater appreciation for the men and women

of the Raleigh Police Department and what we do to

keep this city safe

I do want to give a moment uh take a

moment when I talk about community engagement

Say this year we had National Night Out on August

5th and we had an amazing turnout from our community

at multiple locations

On doing our community doing our national night out event

We kicked off National Night over at Renaissance Park

And I'm sure you guys probably wondering why Renaissance Park

This was the location where Officer Max Gillet was shot

protecting and serving this community

And I thought it was important that as the chief

of police

That I go and I show my appreciation for what

that community did that night

That Max was shot

I appreciate each and every one each each resident each

community member

In the Renaissance Park community

As well as our city as a whole

You guys came out you showed up and you were

very appreciative of the hard work of the men and

women here in the Raleigh Police Department

So in closing I wanna say for the first ever

summer action plan

And why it was needed

Being a city of over half a million residents with

147 square miles of jurisdiction

It's important as a chief to be strategically thinking about

where we place the resources during those summer months of

June July and August to keep our community safe

Going forward we're gonna continue to work with our community

We're gonna continue to leverage partnerships and we're gonna continue

to pour into our youth to make sure that we

create a sense of safety for each and every person

here in the capital city

If you want to get involved and I hope you

do there's a couple of ways you can do that

One I want to quickly talk about Connect Raleigh and

how that has been effective over the summer

And helping the Raleigh Police Department solve and prevent crimes

from occurring here in the city

Please visit our website to get more information about Connect

Raleigh

Also I want members of the community to know

That we are here for you

We're gonna continue with a high level of community engagement

We're gonna continue to be transparent

And we're going to continue to hold each other accountable

to make sure that we make Raleigh the safest city

in the country

I want to thank you all for being here today

and at this time I'll take questions

Good morning

Good morning

I'm Josh at the news

Do you have any statistics specific to the hospitality district

especially Linwood South Is there a way we can compare

how it is now versus say a year ago We

we can provide this

This was the restructure the reorganization of the hospitality district

is something new

So we didn't have this structure last year

What I can tell you is our engagement is up

um tremendously

Being present on those nights those Fridays and Saturday nights

in our Glenwood South area and now our Fe Street

uh corridor has provided a sense of safety downtown

So I'm eager to see what those numbers look like

come next year compared to what we've done this year

when it comes to reorganization reorganizing the hospitality area

I will say uh we have seen an increase which

I acknowledge on the noise violations

Uh that is an increase from last year to this

year

I don't have a specific number but I do know

those violations are up

We're working very vigorously with the city manager's office city

attorney's office and city council to strike a good balance

of quality of life for our community that lives in

that area

Thank you

If I can just clarify one thing are the figures

you gave us year to date or just the summer

months versus last summer year to date

Yes sir

Yes with the data that you all have provided is

there anything that you are going to be hyper uh

focused on as we head into the fall months Yes

uh that's a great question

We're gonna focus on all crime obviously um but one

thing anytime there's a loss of life with homicides uh

that's very concerning

As well as our aggravated assault firearms Raleigh Police Department

we are a public safety partnership city PSP where we

where we're focusing on our non-fatal shootings

That's an area that is new to us

We're going to look at establishing a community violence interrupter

program

Uh Chief of staff role has taken on that initiative

to see what that looks like here in the capital

city

So that's one area that we're going to focus on

because we understand

That shooting that aggravated assault is 1 centimeter 1 millimeter

from being possibly a homicide

So we want to minimize those aggravated assaults

So we're gonna focus on that

We're gonna continue to focus on our property crime with

the like say with the full-time uh team with our

uh auto theft task force we're gonna continue to reduce

vi um motor vehicle thefts here in the capital city

So that's gonna continue

And just overall the community engagement that's the message I

want to leave here today

The Raleigh Police Department

We want to earn the trust of our community

We understand that we cannot be successful

We cannot fight crime if we don't have the support

and the trust of our community

Our community efforts are going to increase

We're actually looking at creating a community engagement division where

we streamline all of our resources into one division

We're currently working on that and I hope to have

that launched here pretty soon

Thank you

What is strategy for enforcing noise ordinance when it comes

to vehicles Yes one is a team effort

Uh we realize that that is a quality of life

violation that a lot of our community members are concerned

about

Uh we're gonna partner with our law enforcement partners and

we're gonna focus on those high traffic areas where we

see a lot of these violations occurring and we're gonna

take the necessary enforcement action to reduce that

We're also gonna educate our our the violators about hey

you cannot modify your muffler uh it's a violation of

our general statutes here in the state of North Carolina

But it's all about being proactive uh taking enforcement action

as well as educating those uh those violators uh about

their modified mufflers as well as those motorcycles as well

as uh any other loud vehicles that we have here

in the city

It's all about working together to reduce those loud noise

We're also working once again with the city manager's office

the city attorney's office and looking at our noise ordinance

for the entire city

And seeing how we can strike a balance between business

owners as well as our community and providing a great

quality of life

Thank you

Yes

And plans for the youth in the fall

I know you guys did a great job of connecting

with the youth over the summer months 700 kids

How do you plan to continue that momentum in the

fall Yes great question

Uh one we have school resource officers in our 10

high schools here in the capital city

Uh through our partnership and through working through with the

Wake County schools we're gonna continue to educate our youth

and provide opportunities for them to be productive members of

our community

We're also gonna partner with nonprofits uh that provide resources

to our youth

Uh as well as we're gonna be active still in

the community you know we're gonna be present at at

sporting events as well as community events through the fall

We have the state fair that's coming up

We'll be visible out there where we see a lot

of kids that go out and enjoy the 10 days

out at the fair

We're gonna have a visible presence in the community and

we're gonna focus on showing our youth that he there's

a

Productive way to manage uh your time here in the

capital city

uh those those places that they gather movie theaters skate

parks uh on our greenways we're gonna be present as

well and provide a sense of safety as well as

a sense of education uh an opportunity to educate our

youth about how to be a productive citizen here in

in our in our city

Great question

Yes Chief you mentioned a lot of the enforcements on

Glenwood South

but what is the department doing to address some of

the violence we saw at bars and nightclubs outside of

that area outside of the downtown port Yes great question

Uh leveraging our partnerships with other law enforcement agencies I

would tell you working with our alcohol law enforcement agents

here in the city uh just this summer we had

issues at the Star Bar

Uh we partnered with alcohol law enforcement

Uh and they took the lead on that investigation and

revoking their their ABC permits as well as providing a

high level of visibility in those nightclubs that are outside

the hospitality area as well as working with these club

owners

Uh we're not in the business of of preventing them

from operating but we want them to operate safely and

we have many uh conversations through our code enforcement unit

Um and with these club owners how to properly secure

and provide safety at these nightlife uh venues and that's

gonna continue

Uh I believe there's a way to strike a balance

between the two and we're gonna continue to work with

our business owners to get to that balance of creating

an environment of safety here in the capital city um

You mentioned too um and it came out this summer

that a judge ruled part of the city's nightlife ordinances

as illegal and then you know that you mentioned the

city is considering changes to the new noise ordinance as

well

I mean how has that impacted how you guys police

downtown and the nightlife areas Well that that's currently ongoing

Uh the the thing is just partnership and communication

Uh we're still getting noise violations and we're still responding

and we're educating the bars and the club owners

Uh about you know the noise level and we're gonna

continue to do that

So it's ongoing

I'm sure more will come once we like say work

with city attorneys city manager and the city council in

creating uh a new noise ordinance to address those issues

down there

Thanks for the questions

All right thank you all

Me too yeah no problem

That's a problem

He did not touch right It's a lot

I don't think we could do all the same