Report: Violent crime up in Raleigh and Charlotte

(The Center Square) – In two major North Carolina cities, violent crime is up while arrests are down.

This comes as Raleigh and Charlotte, two of the 10 largest in the southeastern United States, spend more money on public safety and continue to hire more police officers.

The capital city had an increase in homicides and rapes in the first half of this year as compared to the same period last year, according to the Major Cities Chiefs Association’s mid-year Violent Crime Survey. The survey from Jan. 1 through June 30 broke crimes into four categories: homicide, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault.

Charlotte was up in three of the four: homicide, robbery, and aggravated assault.

The increases of the two largest cities are in contrast to many of the 70 cities reporting decreases in violent crimes. Nationally, crime in all the categories was down.

Crime has long been a concern for Raleigh, a city of about 500,000. The Police Department began increasing patrols last year. Statistics on the report were split – homicides and rapes up, robberies and aggravated assaults down.

Homicides nearly doubled from nine to 16. Rapes rose from 84 to 98.

Both robberies and aggravated assaults are still over 500 each, decreasing slightly at 10% and 7%, respectively.

Charlotte, on the other hand, is one of the few major cities in the U.S. not seeing a decrease in violent crime. Homicides, aggravated assaults, and robberies are all up for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department; rapes dropped 2%.

Homicides increased from 45 to 61, a 36% climb. Up but not as significantly, aggravated assaults rose 8%, robberies 6%.

The Center Square was unsuccessful getting comment from the Raleigh and Charlotte-Mecklenburg police departments.