Fayetteville crime down almost 30% compared to decade ago, police say

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (WTVD) -- The Fayetteville Police Department showcased its latest crime statistics at Monday's city council meeting. Police said total crime is down by almost 30% since 2014. The department also said property crimes were down after there had been an uptick in car thefts reported in August.

Police Chief Kem Braden said this is the lowest that crime has been in Fayetteville in the past decade.

Anti-violence advocate Demetria Murphy credits Braden and the police department for being more consistent in engaging the community to help drive down crime. But she acknowledged how some residents living in higher crime-rate areas might still be frustrated.

"Me living in the downtown area, I may see that it does not look like there's a decrease in crime because it's isolated to that area where I reside vs. where he's giving the whole trajectory of it," Murphy said. "In order for us to continue to see a decline, we have to continue to 'if we see something, say something.'"

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The head of the Phoenix Center, Deanne Gerdes, said the center has been seeing more domestic-violence victims reaching out for help through their work with Fayetteville police. As part of those efforts, the two agencies received a $500,000 cybersecurity grant to replace cellphones of domestic-violence victims.

"So they're not lost, so they have access to banking or their children can get a hold of them or grandma's sick and they can be still involved with that," Gerdes said.

It's also expected that Braden will touch on the state of traffic stops in the city, as well as updates on how the police department has been staffing resource officers and traffic guards at the city's public schools.