Cary, Fayetteville, Raleigh crime reports rising while Durham's drops, data shows

Cary is one of the fastest growing areas around the state. In two years, the population jumped by over three percent, Census data shows. The municipality is also seeing an increase in something else – crime.

According to the State Bureau of Investigations, it went up 15 percent between 2021 and 2022. It was primarily driven by property crimes like burglary and motor vehicle thefts.

That’s the same case for Fayetteville where reported crime is up 14 percent, year-over-year.

The rise in Raleigh’s crime wasn’t as significant – going up 7 percent. The data shows violent crime is more of a contributing factor for the increase in the capital city, though. Murders jumped from 26-to-45 and there were more than 100 more aggravated assaults in 2022 than 2021.

Of the 15 municipalities, seven saw a decrease in reported crime and Durham is among those.

While it went down 3 percent, WRAL checked in with more than a handful of community leaders this week who said they feel the data isn’t reflective of reality for so many people in the city since this information comes from incidents reported. They went on to note that so many occurrences and crimes - both violent and against property – are unreported.

As for solutions, people in our area offered up several suggestions. The was one common theme: a concerted effort from elected officials to prioritize addressing crime and the societal factors that contribute to it.

Zooming out and looking at data for the state - it shows overall, the crime rate dropped slightly, down 1.4 percent from the previous year.

The state's crime rate now sits at 2,526 incidents reported for every 100,000 people in the state. Wake, Johnston and Orange counties all have rates under that while Durham and Cumberland’s sit above it.

Caswell and Yancey have the lowest crime rates while Robeson’s is more than double the state’s.