The FBI released its crime data this week and revealed several key findings in the Triangle and Fayetteville areas..
Data showed that violent and property crime reports dropped in Durham and Fayetteville but went up in Raleigh. The annual release tracks crime trends.
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"What you’re actually seeing is an investment in people in those cities of Fayetteville and Durham instead of a heavy investment in law enforcement," said Kerwin Pittman, a social justice activist. "And now you’re seeing those fruits come to bearing now in a reduction in crime."
Durham’s violent crime reports dropped by about 12 percent between 2020 and 2021, the data shows, and Fayetteville’s, a little over 2 percent all while Raleigh's increased by more than 18 percent.
As violent crime reports went up in Raleigh so did the police budget but clearance rates dropped. In 2020, FBI data shows that the Raleigh police department cleared about 21 percent of the violent incidents reported. A year later, it went down to 16.5 percent.
It’s the lowest of the three cities. Durham’s is nearly double Raleigh’s at over 31 percent. All three North Carolina cities WRAL Data Trackers looked at have clearance rates below the national rate.
Property crime rates are significantly lower despite the number of property crime reports being almost five times as high as violent crime. In Raleigh, police solve about one out of every 20 property crimes reported. The rate is similar in Fayetteville. It's above one out of every 10 in Durham.
Pittman says building trust and strengthening social programs is key to reducing crime and solving it.
"Individuals are struggling so if we get to the root cause of [crime], we need to be solving social issues and economic ones," he said. "There's a lack of those in a lot of these communities. We need to reinvest back into these communities and then we will see a reduction in crime."
A lot of federal funding comes from the data police agencies submit to the FBI. However, many agencies across North Carolina and the nation failed to disclose data to the bureau.
After switching to a new reporting system, almost half of the departments in the country - including New York City police and Los Angeles PD - didn't report data. More than a quarter of agencies in North Carolina failed to report anything making nationwide and state analysis difficult as the data is flawed.
Almost half of the departments in North Carolina also didn't share information for the full year leaving gaps in the data as well.
The three departments in our area - Raleigh, Durham and Fayetteville - all reported for each month in 2021.
We reached out to all three departments to ask about the crime trends and clearance rates. None responded by our deadline.