CMPD Chief Sounds Alarm About “Very Dangerous Trend”

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Police arrested a 17-year-old boy in Charlotte in a stolen car last fall. At his home, they found three handguns. Two of them were stolen, one of them had been illegally modified. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Johnny Jennings says, bluntly, “This young man did not have three illegal firearms in his possession as toys.”

The teen was charged with a grocery list of crimes. But under the state’s Raise the Age law, the teen went home. Jennings says, “We were unable to get a secure custody order and that young man was had to be released to his back to his his mother.”

An increase in instances like these has prompted Jennings to sound the alarm. He tells WCCB News @ Ten anchor Morgan Fogarty, “I just think we’re on a very dangerous trend right now. And a slippery slope that if we don’t reverse it, then we’re going to be paying for it later.”

The numbers confirm it. CMPD’s crime stats show 3,000 juveniles were arrested in Charlotte in 2023. 1,700 of them were repeat offenders. And that was 700 more repeat offenders from 2022.

The Raise the Age law went into effect in North Carolina in 2019. It raised the cut-off age for juvenile jurisdiction from 16 to 18. It was designed to allow more kids to benefit from sealed records and rehabilitation, and keep them out of adult jail. Jennings says, “People ask me all the time if I’m advocating to incarcerate more young people. That’s not at all what I’m saying.” What Jennings is saying, is that Charlotte-Mecklenburg needs to fund the resources needed to make this law function properly. He says we need more juvenile court counselors and judges. Mecklenburg County doesn’t even have a juvenile jail. It was shut down in 2022 due to budget cuts. Jennings says, “To be the largest city in the state without a juvenile detention center is something I think we really need to take a hard look at.”

The Raise the Age law protections are supposed to only apply to non-violent juvenile offenders. Jennings says, “There are several situations where kids have committed violent offenses that we don’t get secure custody orders on.” That, he says, leaves law enforcement to wonder if that lack of accountability means it’s just a matter of time before teens like the boy with the three illegal guns becomes a repeat offender. Jennings says, “I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t very soon run into him again.”

The North Carolina Department of Public Safety says the Raise the Age law reduces crime and is cost effective. Another Public Safety Department leader has previously said the law “was the right thing to do.”