For CMPD, a ‘challenging year’ ends with fewer overall crimes but more violent ones

Amanda Zhou

Violent crime in Charlotte increased by 15% in 2020 while overall crime decreased by almost 20% in what Charlotte-Mecklenburg police Chief Johnny Jennings called a “very difficult and challenging year.”

The increase in violent crimes was primarily driven by a 30% increase in aggravated assaults and an 18% increase in homicides, Jennings said during a news conference Thursday.

There are currently 122 homicides reported for 2020. Jennings said he expects that number to go down as some of those cases are reviewed by the district attorney and recategorized. In 2019, the year ended with 107, and the year prior, there were 57 murders.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police reported a 20% decrease in overall crime in 2020 despite a 15% increase in violent crimes. Police Chief Johnny Jennings discussed the statistics during a news conference on Thursday, January 7, 2021.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police reported a 20% decrease in overall crime in 2020 despite a 15% increase in violent crimes. Police Chief Johnny Jennings discussed the statistics during a news conference on Thursday, January 7, 2021.

Jennings said it is especially tragic when the victims and suspects of these murders are young people.

“Nothing is more frustrating for me as a police chief ... to hear about a homicide where a 15- or 16-year-old has been shot and killed, and then to find out that it was a 15- or 16-year-old that committed the crime,” he said.

Jennings — who became chief in July — said CMPD has tried to lean into the other challenges of 2020 such as the coronavirus pandemic, the George Floyd protests and the review of police policy that followed.

“(I’ve) been doing this for close to three decades and — by far, without a question and without a doubt in my mind — this was the most challenging for law enforcement across the country and for CMPD,” he said.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police Chief Johny Jennings, shown last September, assumed command of the department in July 2020. On Thursday, January 7, 2021, Jennings called 2020 “the most challenging for law enforcement across the country and for CMPD.”
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police Chief Johny Jennings, shown last September, assumed command of the department in July 2020. On Thursday, January 7, 2021, Jennings called 2020 “the most challenging for law enforcement across the country and for CMPD.”

CMPD holds the news conference annually to release crime statistics and highlight the work of individual officers and the department.

Here’s how crime and police activity compared to the previous year:

▪ There was a 47% increase in shootings into occupied homes and vehicles with 927 incidents. A CMPD task force dedicated to investigating those incidents made 164 arrests and seized 118 illegal guns.

▪ Break-ins decreased by 30%, and robberies dropped by 8%, Jennings said. The dip is likely related to the fact that more people are at home due to the pandemic, he said.

▪ Sexual assault cases decreased by 17%.

▪ Complaints about police officers decreased from 121 to 105 in 2020. Of the year’s total, 75 complaints were internal reports, Jennings said.

▪ There were 385 incidents where police used a type of force — which includes everything from pepper spray to firing a gun — compared to 437 in 2019.

Police also shared data related to the pandemic:

▪ 168 CMPD employees tested positive for COVID-19.

▪ CMPD received 4,366 coronavirus-related complaints and conducted 2,554 in-person checks.

▪ CMPD issued 42 citations and 285 warnings.

Latest Stories

  • When will Warnock and Ossoff be seated in the Senate — and when will Democrats take control?

    With their upset victories in this week’s Georgia runoffs, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff will give Democrats the edge in the U.S. Senate for the first time since 2015.

  • A second new strain of COVID spreads fear in Britain as Boris Johnson dithers

    The new year in the U.K. is starting out very rocky — with the country battling not one but two variants of the coronavirus that have sent new case numbers quadrupling in a month.

  • Mike Pence’s daughter reveals she was caught up in riots and defends ‘hero’ Capitol police

    Charlotte Pence Bond, Mike Pence’s daughter, has defended Capitol Police after pro-Trump rioters were able to overpower law enforcement and breach the US Capitol on Wednesday. Capitol Police have come under scrutiny given how underprepared they appeared to be compared to the number of rioters who descended on the Capitol. Anyone who is blaming the Capitol Hill Police for the domestic terrorism that occurred yesterday should seriously reconsider their position.

  • Indonesian police kill 2 suspected militants in raid

    Members of Indonesia's anti-terrorism police squad on Wednesday shot and killed two suspected militants who they believe were connected to a deadly suicide attack at a Roman Catholic cathedral in the southern Philippines, and arrested 18 others, officials said. The two men, Muhammad Rizaldy, 46, and his son-in-law, Sanjai Ajis, 23, were fatally shot by police after they resisted arrest by wielding a machete and an air-rifle during a raid at a house in Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi province, said National Police spokesperson Ahmad Ramadhan.

  • Inside Fashion Designer Brian Atwood’s Vibrant Apartment 64 Floors Above Manhattan

    The Hudson Yards aerie, which Atwood shares with his physician husband Jake Deutsch, is literally “a glass box in the sky.”Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest

  • Democrats hit out at 'Sedition Caucus' of Republican senators who voted to throw out election results

    A group of Republican senators who objected to the election results have been called the "Sedition Caucus" and accused by Democrats of "standing with the mob". Eight Republican senators and over 130 of the party's members of Congress voted against certifying election results even after the debate was shut down by rioters. The Senate contingent led by Texas senator Ted Cruz, and Missouri senator Josh Hawley, faced demands from Democrats to resign or be expelled from the Senate. Mr Cruz and the others condemned the violence but still objected to the certification of the results. They argued that large numbers of voters, including many Democrats, did not have faith in the results, and therefore a commission should be established to audit them. Initially, more than a dozen Republican senators had objected, but some withdrew their protest after the siege of the Capitol. Those included Oklahoma senator James Lankford, who was speaking on the Senate floor when it was shut down. On his return hours later a stunned-looking Mr Lankford said: "I was literally interrupted mid-sentence speaking here...peaceful people in my state want their questions [about the election result] answered, but they don't want this, what happened today. We must set a peaceful example." An editorial by the Kansa City Star newspaper in Missouri said Mr Hawley had "blood on his hands".

  • Trump aides reportedly conclude he is 'mentally unreachable'

    President Trump reportedly spent much of Wednesday "cocooned" at the White House as his supporters stormed the Capitol, and his aides say he has become "mentally unreachable."While a pro-Trump mob breached the Capitol building on Wednesday, disrupting Congress' session to certify President-elect Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 election and leaving four people dead, Trump was "cocooned at the White House and listening only to a small coterie of loyal aides," all while resisting calls from advisers to condemn the rioters, The Washington Post reports."He kept saying: 'The vast majority of them are peaceful,'" an administration official told the Post. "'What about the riots this summer? What about the other side? No one cared when they were rioting. My people are peaceful. My people aren't thugs.' He didn't want to condemn his people."Now, Axios reports that some of Trump's "stalwart aides and confidants" have "given up trying to communicate with him" altogether, "considering him mentally unreachable.""His closest friends and paid White House officials — many of the Trumpiest Trumpers we know — are avoiding him like the plague," Axios writes, adding, "The president's final days in office will be lonely ones."Although Trump did ultimately release a video on Twitter in which he called on those rioting in the Capitol to go home, the video also again included his false claims that the election was stolen. According to the Post, aides had asked Trump not to include these false claims in the statement, but he went off script and threw them in anyway. Ultimately, some aides believe Trump "did irreparable damage to his presidency and legacy," the Post writes, with an administration official saying, "He was a total monster today."More stories from theweek.com The decline and fall of Donald Trump Pence reportedly expected to attend the inauguration as Trump potentially leaves for Mar-a-Lago Trump is reportedly polling aides on whether he should pardon himself

  • Some Israeli Arabs, Jerusalem Palestinians wary of vaccine

    UMM AL-FAHM, Israel (Reuters) -As Israel leads the world in the rate of coronavirus vaccination, some of its Arab citizens and Palestinians in annexed East Jerusalem are regarding the shot with suspicion. In what officials see as a result of misinformation about possible side effects or supposed malicious properties, turnout for vaccines has been low among Arabs, who make up 21% of Israel's population, and Jerusalem Palestinians. Israel launched its vaccination drive on Dec. 19 with supplies from Pfizer Inc's. The Health Ministry said on Thursday that 17.5% of the population - and 70% of citizens aged 60 or older - had received their first shots.

  • Pakistan arrests 7 Shiite militants, foils possible attacks

    Pakistan's counter-terrorism police and the country's intelligence agency raided hideouts of an outlawed Shiite militant group in the eastern Punjab province and arrested seven suspects who allegedly wanted to attack leaders of rival Sunni Muslims' groups, a spokesman said Thursday. The suspects were being directed by militant leader Mehmood Iqbal, who was hiding in a neighboring country, officials said. Authorities did not name the country but officials have previously blamed Iran for backing Shiite militants.

  • Protester with feet on Nancy Pelosi's desk is a Trump supporter from Arkansas

    A Capitol protester pictured with his feet up in the offices of US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been identified as Richard Barnett, a self-described 'white nationalist' Trump supporter from Arkansas. Mr Barnett, 60, who was one of several protesters who stormed into Ms Pelosi's office, wrote her a "nasty note" and took a letter from her office addressed to a Republican Congressman. After then fleeing outside, he waved the letter around and gave a foul-mouthed interview to a waiting reporters, where he complained of having been squirted with mace spray by police trying to protect the building. He mockingly denied stealing the envelope, saying he had left some loose change on Ms Pelosi's desk by way of payment. “I didn’t steal it. I bled on it because they were macing me and I couldn’t f—ing see,” Mr Barnett said, according to video posted on Twitter by a New York Times reporter. “So I figure ‘well, I’m in her office, I got blood in her office, I’ll put a quarter on her desk even though she ain’t f—ing worth it." He added: "When the police came in with pepper spray, “I said, ‘I paid for this, it’s mine,’ and I left."

  • Trump has reportedly been 'ranting about Pence,' who could still effectively fire him

    President Trump cannot fire Vice President Mike Pence. But Pence could play a big part in immediately ending Trump's term.Removing Trump via the 25th Amendment, "a move, long dismissed as a liberal fantasy," is one of a handful of options being considered by shaken Trump allies, Axios said Wednesday night, confirming earlier reports. Republicans are furious with Trump for "fomenting an attack on American democracy" by sending a mob to sack the U.S. Capitol, as well as his leading role in ending GOP control of the Senate, and "there's concern about whether the country can withstand another two weeks with Trump at the helm."Republicans are also discussing censuring Trump, which would do little, and removing him via impeachment, Axios says. "The 25th Amendment route would require buy-in from Pence and a majority of Trump's Cabinet. But many of those Cabinet members also have been loyalists to the president and serve in acting capacities, so it's not clear that support or will exists." On the other hand, "Trump has been ranting about Pence" and his ceremonial role in finalizing President-elect Joe Biden's win, sources tell Axios.If removed under the never-used Section 4 of the 25th Amendment, "Trump can't just take his powers back immediately and fire all the Cabinet officers who sought to sideline him," George Conway explained.> ... to sustain the VP's and cabinet's judgment. Congress has 21 days to act. > > Since Trump now has less than 14 days left in his term, Congress can just run out the clock with Pence in place until Biden is sworn in.> > -- George Conway (@gtconway3d) January 7, 2021The idea of removing Trump with 13 days left in his term is not yet being embraced by House or Senate GOP leaders, Axios says,"and it's too soon to know whether those talking about them are just letting off steam after a shock to the democracy, or whether a critical mass exists to proceed." But Pence looked pretty irritated and maybe even a little presidential when he reconvened the congressional count of Biden's electoral victory after police removed the pro-Trump mob from the Capitol."I've known Mike Pence forever," Sen James Inhofe (R-Okla.) told the Tulsa World on Tuesday night, after a day of public abuse by Trump. "I've never seen Pence as angry as he was today. I had a long conversation with him," he added. "He said, 'After all the things I've done for (Trump).'"More stories from theweek.com The decline and fall of Donald Trump Trump aides reportedly conclude he is 'mentally unreachable' Pence reportedly expected to attend the inauguration as Trump potentially leaves for Mar-a-Lago

  • Turkey says talks with France to normalise ties going well

    ANKARA (Reuters) -Turkey and France are working on a roadmap to normalise ties and talks are going well, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday, adding Ankara was ready to improve ties with its NATO ally if Paris showed the same willingness. Turkey has repeatedly traded barbs with France over policies in Syria, Libya, the eastern Mediterranean and Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as over the publication of cartoons of Prophet Mohammad in France. Paris has led a push for EU sanctions on Turkey.

  • Boston Marathon bomber sues over ballcap, showers in prison

    Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has sued the federal government for $250,000 over his treatment at the Colorado prison where he is serving a life sentence. Tsarnaev, 26, calls his treatment in the handwritten suit filed Monday “unlawful, unreasonable and discriminatory.”

  • Jake Angeli: What we know about the 'QAnon shaman' who stormed the US Capitol

    The horned man is an actor from Arizona who believes in the QAnon conspiracy theory

  • House nearly devolves into a brawl during the objection to Pennsylvania electors

    Tempers flared on the House floor early Thursday during speeches for and against an objection to recognizing President-elect Joe Biden's electoral win in Pennsylvania — the final hurdle in the counting of Electoral College votes, delayed by the occupation of the Capitol on Wednesday by a mob supporting President Trump. Rep. Conor Lamb, a moderate Democrat from Pennsylvania, lit into his Republican colleagues, telling them their objections have no merit and "don't deserve an ounce of respect. A woman died out there tonight, and you're making these objections."There was a commotion from the GOP side after Lamb said the people storming the Capitol would have been arrested if they weren't white, prompting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-N.Y.) to call for order. "Enough has been done today already to try to strip this Congress of its dignity, and we don't need to do any more," Lamb said, adding that some of his colleagues had fueled the mob by repeating lies about the election. A few moments later, Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) objected, saying Lamb was calling him a liar. Pelosi shot down the objection, and then things nearly came to blows.> "There will be order in the House."> > Watch tensions rise on House floor during debate on Pennsylvania ElectoralCollege Vote Objection.> > Note: C-SPAN does not control cameras in the House. pic.twitter.com/sQ1vAIxc0t> > — CSPAN (@cspan) January 7, 2021The benches cleared, and the deputy sergeant at arms got involved. PBS's Lisa Desjardins explains what happened off-camera:> 6\. Democrats got on feet, from other side of the chamber many (a dozen?) started moving quickly, almost running thru rows to where Harris was. > 7\. Republicans started doing same. > 8\. A staffer - it may have been the Sgt. at Arms moved even more quickly to separate them.> > 2/> > — Lisa Desjardins (@LisaDNews) January 7, 2021"We want this government to work more than they want it to fail," Lamb said after the fight was defused, then ceded the floor.More stories from theweek.com The decline and fall of Donald Trump Trump aides reportedly conclude he is 'mentally unreachable' Pence reportedly expected to attend the inauguration as Trump potentially leaves for Mar-a-Lago

  • Yahoo News reporter speaks to woman who says she stormed the Capitol because ‘it’s a revolution’

    Yahoo News White House Correspondent Hunter Walker spoke to a woman identifying herself as “Elizabeth” who said she was Maced when she tried to enter the U.S. Capitol during violent protests on Wednesday.

  • AP Photos: Indian army patrols border with rival Pakistan

    From sandbagged Indian army bunkers dug deep into the Pir Panjal mountains in the Himalayas, villages on the Pakistan-controlled side of Kashmir appear precariously close, on the other side of the Line of Control that for the past 73 years has divided the region between the two nuclear-armed rivals. Tens of thousands of soldiers from India and Pakistan are positioned along the two sides. AP journalists were recently allowed to cover Indian army counterinsurgency drills in Poonch and Rajouri districts along the Line of Control.

  • To be white in America means you can storm the Capitol — and take selfies with police

    Black protesters must be controlled. White supremacists must be appeased.

  • Chinese city of 11 million stops people leaving in bid to contain COVID

    The capital and largest city in northern China's Hebei province barred people from leaving on Thursday in an effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus as the country reported the biggest rise in daily infections in more than five months. Hebei accounted for 51 of the 52 local cases reported by the National Health Commission on Thursday. In addition to barring people from leaving the city, people and vehicles from areas of the city considered high-risk were not allowed to leave their district, authorities said.

  • Trump's cabinet 'consider forcibly removing him from office' as Republican loyalty disintegrates

    Donald Trump’s own cabinet members are reportedly considering whether to forcibly remove him from office via the 25th amendment after his actions before the storming of Congress triggered widespread condemnation. CBS News reported that discussions about invoking the manoeuvre, once derided as a liberal dream by Trump supporters, were under way at the top of the US government after a mob smashed their way into the US Capitol. The extraordinary move, which would see Mr Trump removed from post and replaced by his vice president Mike Pence, would need support of a majority of the cabinet and Mr Pence himself. It remains unclear whether the reported discussions will lead to action, given Mr Trump has just two weeks remaining in post and such a decision could trigger a backlash from his supporters. But it is a reflection of how infuriated and concerned previously ultra-loyal members of Mr Trump’s own administration have become by his fanning of the flames of anger over the election result.