Greensboro Police Chief Brian James gave the City Council an update on violent crime data covering the first half of 2020 at the virtual work session on Thursday, July 29.
Several slides of the PowerPoint presentation by James displayed violent crimes by City Council district. Crime data is usually divided into the four police districts, which are not related to council districts.
According to the report through June 30, 2021, the number of aggravated assaults by districts and the councilmember who represents that district are: Councilmember Sharon Hightower District 1 – 104, Councilmember Goldie Wells District 2 – 123, Councilmember Justin Outling District 3 – 42, Councilmember Nancy Hoffmann District 4 – 62 and Councilmember Tammi Thurm District 5 – 36. That is total of aggravated assaults in the city for the first half of this year of 367 and the entire city is represented by the three at-large councilmembers, Yvonne Johnson, Marikay Abuzuaiter and Michelle Kennedy and also by Mayor Nancy Vaughan.
Homicides are somewhat more evenly divided across the city. The 19 homicides in the first six months of the year are: District 1 – 6, District 2 – 5, District 3 – 1, District 4 – 4 and District 5 – 3. That’s a total of 19 homicides in the first half of the year which, as James said, is too many, but it is down from 22 during the same period in 2020, a reduction of 14 percent. The decrease in homicides is more pronounced on a year-to-date basis with 23 so far in 2021 compared to 32 during the same period in 2020.
James said, “If you follow the national news, you know that in a lot of cities our size and larger, crime is actually trending up. We are actually trending down.
The map above of violent crime during the first six months of 2021 has homicides represented by red ovals and aggravated assaults by yellow ovals. Although James said he made a point of not talking about the “crescent,” both Hightower and Wells did. It runs from northeast Greensboro through east Greensboro to southwest Greensboro and is the area where most violent crimes in Greensboro happen.
Oh … I feelz so safe now! How many cops down now is GSO?
Ug. Homicides are only down compared to last year’s record breaking homicide rate. 2020’s murder rate almost doubled our usual annual average. The chief and everyone else needs to stop comparing numbers to one anomalous data set. Look at 5 and 10 year trends and averages to get a more accurate read on where we stand.
Exactly. Numbers can tell you anything . . . .but the real power is who gets to present the numbers. Figures never lie, but liars figure.
It would be helpful to have better resolution on your published map