CMPD Works to Combat Rising Gun Violence

CHARLOTTE, NC — Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police are seeing incredible spikes in violent crime involving guns. Gunshot cases are up 95% over the most recent three-year-average.

I sat down for an exclusive interview with CMPD to talk about the effort to get illegal firearms, and the felons who use them, off our streets.

“It’s concerning to look at the numbers, because we’ve got to put our resources there,” says CMPD Captain Mike Harris. “The numbers, they don’t lie. I mean violence is going up, and gun violence is a significant fact of it.”

Those numbers. In 2016, Assault with A Deadly Weapon, involving a gun, is up 75% over the three-year average with 63 so far.

Shooting Into Occupied Property is spiking 210%, with 27 this year. The average is less than nine.

“You’ll have houses that get shot into that had nothing to do with it,” says Harris. “Multiple cars, in driveways or in the street, that get shot into as well.”

Harris is the division commander of CMPD’s Special Investigations Bureau.

“You have a lot of people in these communities where a lot of this gun violence takes place that are scared,” he says.

CMPD is throwing resources into combating gun violence; working with multiple agencies to target known violent gun offenders, and get them off the streets.

“When we pinpoint somebody, and we can identify somebody, we go after them hard,” says Harris.

And the effort is paying off. Guns found and seized by CMPD are up 25%, with almost 1,200 so far this year.

“I can tell you how many were seized,” says Captain Harris. “I wish I had a crystal ball to tell you how many were out there on the street right now. And that’s the frustrating thing.”

It’s more than just frustrating. All those guns on the street are increasing the danger for officers and the communities they are trying to protect.

“It’s something that we have to have in the forefront of our mind,” says Harris. “We don’t have a choice. At the end of the day, we need good quality investigations. Good quality convictions. Good quality prosecutions. And good time, in jail, in prison and away from these guns.”

And these are dangerous times for law enforcement officers across the country. Firearms-related fatalities for officers spiked 78% in the first half of this year with 32 so far. There were 18 during the same period last year.