Despite the fact that the Greensboro Police Department currently has 119 vacancies, overall crime was down in 2021 compared to 2022.
While crime statistics are trending in the right direction, down, the vacancy rate in the Police Department is trending in the wrong direction up. In October 2021, the GPD had 108 vacancies, so in three months the number of vacancies has increased by 11.
Greensboro Police Chief Brian James in a report to the City Council in December said the GPD was learning to do more with less and that appears to be true.
There were 53 homicides in 2021 compared to 62 in 2020, and while that is a decrease, 53 is the second largest number of homicides on record in Greensboro.
In 2021, there were 75 rapes compared to 88 in 2020 and 1,983 aggravated assaults in 2021 down from 2,004 in 2020.
In 2021, there were 551 robberies, 243 of those were robberies with a firearm compared to 2020 when there were 585 robberies with 298 of those being robberies with a firearm.
James said that the GPD was concentrating on getting more guns off the streets in 2021 and as a result 1,772 guns were seized in 2021 compared to 1,260 in 2020.
Burglaries in 2021 were down in 2021 with 1,759 compared to 2,220 in 2020, but theft from motor vehicles was up with 3,060 in 2021 compared to 2,963 in 2020.
Motor vehicle theft was almost the same with 1,121 in 2021 compared to 1,126 in 2020.
Both drug overdoses and drug overdose deaths were up in 2021 with 846 drug overdoses and 122 drug overdose deaths compared to 677 drug overdoses and 113 drug overdose deaths in 2020.
Traffic fatalities were also up in 2021 and the number of pedestrians killed more than doubled. There were 52 traffic fatalities in 2021 and 17 of those killed were pedestrians compared to 35 fatalities in 202 with 8 pedestrian fatalities.
one year’s statistics does not reveal a trend…and why on earth should the GPD have to do more with less anyway?They should be doing more with more.City government is to provide everything the police need to work with and sets policies and parameters for them to work within.What we have in Greensboro leadership is pathetically misguided and weak governance.I am immensely thankful to the men and women who serve us in law enforcement in this city.They are truly heroic just to show up every day,protecting citizens in this poorly governed city.Why any of them work here is a wonder-and a blessing.
Thank all of you who work in law enforcement here!
The older ones are too invested in their retirements to leave. The younger ones either dont know any better or are using GPD as a stepping stone. I hear a lot of people use GPD to get trained and certified and then start looking elsewhere, since everywhere else pays more but may not have in house training.
I see Joe Biden is doing the proofreading these days. Chomping at the bit to vote
The crime is not being reported accurately then. Our neighborhood near Battleground Park has had an upswing of robberies . I reported mine and heard a week later and they said there were so many that they would not have an officer to report it for three weeks. My teenage children went with a grouo.downtown and were harassed by an adult male and he took the sunglasses off my sons head. Then near Page High School my son and his friend were robbed at gun point. You need to read nextdoorneighbor app. It is just not being reported if what Mr Hammer received were th
E stayidtics. It is dangerous to go downtown and certain areas. Now I know why….no police officrrs!!!
I really appreciate a chief who touts doing more with less. That’s an awesome idea.
If he’s so great at doing more with less why didn’t he do it when the “peaceful “protesters were robbing and burning businesses downtown in June. If you’re smart you will not go downtown It’s really not safe
I walk downtown alot never had a problem.
As you have succinctly stated in the article, there is NO correlation between crime statistics and police staffing levels, ergo there is no causation. THE ONLY STATISTIC relevant here is not how many crimes are committed, but how many crimes are SOLVED and perpetrators arrested. If felony crimes are solved at similar rates as before, than police are doing a good job working with less and are adequately staffed. People commit crimes out of many social, emotional and economic factors that have nothing to do with how many police a city has or doesn’t have. Looking at the number and types of crimes reported so far this year, we seem to be well within low-normal numbers for a city of this size.
https://www.crimemapping.com/map/location/Greensboro,%20NC,%20USA?id=dHA9MCNsb2M9OTYyMTY0I2xuZz0zNCNwbD0xNTY3MDcjbGJzPTE0OjE2OTI0MjI2
Don’t worry tuna soon we’ll be a socialist country and we’ll have a gulag for all our criminals and you everything free for all thinkers like chris will be in heaven