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.

"We've had several seizures of vehicles associated with arrests and stopping and citations that we've issued, so showing that we're not just going to allow it to happen, but we're going to go out there aggressively identify who's violating these laws and actually take some action against it," Braden told ABC11.

Braden said the ShotSpotter program, among other efforts, has been a big help in reducing crime, especially with FPD being short-staffed.

The chief told ABC11 that getting his recruiting numbers up is a big goal in the coming year.

"We're accomplishing these numbers with, you know, the staffing issues that we have," Braden said. "I think I said it was like 120-something short. You know, that have well-rested officers that aren't working tired you know, that we can focus and fill the ranks of some of our special investigative units that are working at 50% capacity. Know, I think that the numbers would greatly improve, you know with the staffing and the morale of our troops."

Braden said he's also working to recruit officers from other departments to help fill those vacancies.

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.