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By Cleve R. Wootson Jr.
The Charlotte Observer

CHARLOTTE — For weeks, fearful residents have convened meetings, questioned police and, in one neighborhood, paid off-duty officers to patrol streets.
On Tuesday, police confirmed what people suspected: Crime is spiking in Charlotte.
The number of violent crimes and property crimes both jumped about 11 percent in March from the month before.
And for the first three months of 2008, violent crime leapt 15.3 percent and property crime grew 11.9 percent compared with the same period in 2007, police said.
Experts say a worsening economy is adding to the usual causes of crime — repeat offenders, drugs and dangerous lifestyles.
The spike drew residents' attention even before police unveiled numbers Tuesday.
"March was a bad month for us," said Charlotte-Mecklenburg Deputy Chief David Graham. "Nobody is more frustrated than we are as a police department."
Chief Darrel Stephens, who retires in June, downplayed the increase Tuesday, saying that while his department takes it seriously, there are always variations in crime numbers, and that people should consider rates and long-term trends.
The violent crime rate in Charlotte has generally been declining for more than a decade, while the property crime rate has edged up in four of the past five years.
Still, anxiety has grown after a recent rash of brazen property crimes and high-profile violence. And several neighborhoods are planning to voice concerns at Monday's City Council meeting.
"I don't know if it's the economy — maybe people are desperate ...," says Cotswold resident Brett Boner, a financial adviser. "But people are scared. They are freaked out."
In the first three months of 2008, compared with the same period last year:
— The number of robberies increased 15.1 percent.
— Aggravated assaults jumped 16.8 percent.
— Burglaries were up 8.3 percent -- including a 17.8 percent spike in home burglaries.
— Thefts from automobiles, which comprised a third of all crimes, rose 27 percent.
The crime spike doesn't surprise Geoff Owen, president of the Dilworth Neighborhood Association. His community recently collected money to pay for off-duty police officers to patrol its streets for the next six months.
"It's like no other time that people can remember, even talking to residents that have been here for 30 years," Owen said.
Residents in east Charlotte's Plaza Midwood also are considering hiring off-duty officers, and strengthened their neighborhood watch after two people were shot at a bar there earlier this month.
Thieves in north Charlotte recently stole Brent Davis' van from his business on Statesville Road — not far from where police shot a man during a confrontation Monday.
"It's a decent place during the day," Davis said. "But at night? You've got to watch your back."
In south Charlotte, more than 100 residents gathered Saturday at Providence Day School to talk about crime.
People in Cotswold are upgrading alarm systems and burying phone lines so thieves can't cut them, Boner said. He and others are talking about buying guns.
"Now we have families being held at gunpoint, people breaking in during the day to steal flat screens and jewelry," he said. "That's pretty severe."
Justice system blamed
Police say other parts of the criminal justice system hinder crime-fighting efforts, particularly a court system that cycles criminals back onto the street.
"We arrest and arrest and arrest the same ones," Graham said.
He announced plans -- thanks to a $110,000 gift from a private police foundation -- to expand the department's electronic monitoring program to track some repeat offenders and defendants out on bail or on probation.
But criminologists say other factors are driving crime in Charlotte, and nationally.
Historically, crime ebbs and flows with the economy, said Joe Kuhns, a criminal science professor at UNC Charlotte. And with the nation on the brink of a recession, other cities are experiencing increases in crime.
"What you're seeing in Charlotte is happening around the country," said Richard Rosenfeld, a criminal justice professor at the University of Missouri in St. Louis. "In my view, the nation is seeing an increase in crime associated with the worsening economy."
Mecklenburg's unemployment rate in February was 5.2 percent, the highest in two years, according to the N.C. Employment Security Commission.
Rosenfeld has researched the association between robberies, larcenies, burglaries and auto theft and the strength of the economy.
"When the economy turns down, crime tends to go up," he said. "When the economy is strong, crime tends to decline."
Professor Vivian Lord, who chairs UNCC's criminal justice department, said other reasons may be at play too.
"Charlotte's population is booming," Lord said. "There's an increase in gang activity in Charlotte. There's an increase in drug activity in Charlotte. Those things are all possibly related to the increase in crime."



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