After running a brief wire service story yesterday that mentioned that Charlotte’s crime rate went up last year while North Carolina’s as a whole went down — info contained in the very last graf, at that — I figured the Observer would follow up today with some more analysis of that trend. Well, kinda.
Readers who made it all the way to the bottom of page B3 find a perfunctory box listing Mecklenburg among several other surrounding counties, some of whom also saw crime rates increase. Then at the top of page B4 we get a quick rundown on CMPD police chief Darrel Stephens spinning Charlotte’s latest crime stats to city council Tuesday night. (Bottomline, violence up, break-ins down.)
Still missing is the full comparison to similar cities. From a longer version of the AP story we find that Asheville’s crime rate did go up, but nothing on Wilmington’s New Hanover County. Turning to the actual numbers released by the state we find crime down there too.
So to recap, that is Charlotte-Mecklenburg crime up 5 percent. Raleigh down 17 percent. Greensboro down 6 percent. Wake County down 10 percent. Guilford County down 6 percent. New Hanover down slightly. Asheville up about 8 percent.
Gee, isn’t it great so many people are taking the bus to work?
