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Crime in Charlotte


charlotte_bon_vivant

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Hi, everyone. Last night, my car was stolen. :cry: I can't believe I've lived in L.A., Atlanta, Seattle.. Just about any large city you can name and my car gets stolen in Charlotte. (This has never happened to me before..) My question (or rather, questions): Is crime getting really bad in Charlotte? I live near Uptown, so I assume there is some crime here. But the more I talk to people about this, the more I realize it's a constant problem. I've spoken to friends all over Charlotte who've had their cars stolen or broken into or vandalized. This of course doesn't take into account violent crime, which appears to be increasing. What is going on here? Have the police announced a plan to do something other than stopping teenagers from going Uptown? If this had happened in Atlanta, I could chalk it up to the fact that the police dept. there is totally incompetent. I thought the police dept. in Charlotte was better... Are things going to continue down this path? Should I pack up and move to the :choke: suburbs?

I guess I'll go cry some more now.

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Hi, everyone. Last night, my car was stolen. :cry: I can't believe I've lived in L.A., Atlanta, Seattle.. Just about any large city you can name and my car gets stolen in Charlotte. (This has never happened to me before..) My question (or rather, questions): Is crime getting really bad in Charlotte? I live near Uptown, so I assume there is some crime here. But the more I talk to people about this, the more I realize it's a constant problem. I've spoken to friends all over Charlotte who've had their cars stolen or broken into or vandalized. This of course doesn't take into account violent crime, which appears to be increasing. What is going on here? Have the police announced a plan to do something other than stopping teenagers from going Uptown? If this had happened in Atlanta, I could chalk it up to the fact that the police dept. there is totally incompetent. I thought the police dept. in Charlotte was better... Are things going to continue down this path? Should I pack up and move to the :choke: suburbs?

I guess I'll go cry some more now.

Before I went to college, my car was almost stolen - good thing it has an obnoxious and ridiculously loud alarm - right outside my house. And we live in Ballantyne - plus, our neighbors house was broken into, and a few other people had their cars broken into and stolen. I don't know if it's changed - that was about 2 years ago - but the suburbs aren't any better (even the nice ones). Be strong and stay where you are - it sucks - but moving to the suburbs isn't always the answer. Goodluck and I'm sorry :(

Oh - and if your going to live in a more urban environment (as in you don't have a garage) you should consider buying a club (to put around your steering wheel) or wheel locks - did your car have an alarm? I know burglars can get around these things today, but they are a deterrent - as in, they will most likely go for the car without the club or wheel locks, etc.

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Girly, I am sorry for your loss. Hopefully they will find your car.

Yes crime is getting much worse in Charlotte especially near and in the CBD as your experience has demonstrated. I know a number of people downtown or near downtown that have had their cars stolen or a window smashed and something stolen from it. Also, I don't think I know anyone who has said the response from the police dept. was that satisfactory. This isn't exactly the fault of the Police as their resources are being stretched thing by the increasing violent crime so car thefts are not exactly on the top of their list of things to deal with (I assume).

The last few times I was in downtown I was panhandled which made me very nervous.

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I lived in Ballantyne for a while and worked in Piper Glen for a while and believe me it is no safer. There were constant warnings of vehicle theft rings. My brother was robbed at gunpoint in a fairly upscale strip mall on Providence next to 485. The guys who robbed him were from West Charlotte, the problem was often people from poorer parts of town going to the "rich part" to rob people because they assume they can get more money that way. SouthPark had its fair share of problems this year as well for the same reason.

My advice, stay in the center city. People are aware of the problem there because they are more connected to each other and the neighborhood they live in. In the burbs, someone two houses down from you could have their car stolen and you'll never hear about it because no one speaks to each other. Everyone operates in their own independent world. Also, despite the problem, people assume it is an isolated event because the area "looks safe" and "feels safe" and because of that people on the whole are less vigilant. People are less likely to walk around their neighborhoods or be observant of their neighbor

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Some pretty amazing/sad statistics.....

Jan-July (half), 2005/Jan-July (half) 2004

Homicide & Murder = up 40%

Rape = down 4%

Robbery = up 29%

Assault = down 12%

Burglary = up 4%

Larcency = down 7%

Vehicle Theft = up 7%

Violent = up 3%

Property = down 2.5%

The violent crime bothers me the most.....

Something about these stats I don't trust. I got them off the Charmeck website, but I think that crime has gotten a lot worse in Charlotte since 2004 and tons worse since 2000. I know that most violent crimes occur in East Charlotte or West Charlotte, but most property crimes occur in South Charlotte or North Mecklenburg. North Charlotte has a little of everything. I don't blame the police, there isn't too much more they can do. Overall, I think crime has gotten worse in Charlotte and don't see it getting better anytime soon. :unsure:

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I'm sorry to hear about your car girly. I had my car stolen in Chicago and I know the feeling, it sucks. I grew up in the DC metro area which is a notoriously high crime rate area and was never once a victim of crime. No one ever thinks a city has a crime problem though until they are a victim of it.

The lesson that I learned though was that complacency leads to carelessness which in turn leads to becoming a victim. Now I treat every night as though I'm securing a communications bunker in a war zone.

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i think much of the crime is related to gang activity, which also means that it is targetted to other gangs, and is not random. there are, however, the random crimes like auto theft that happen anywhere in the city.

i had my car stolen from my downtown parking lot (behind my house) in 2002. i had a car that was very high for thefts (high parts value and easy to steal honda), but luckily it was just some kids that took it for a joyride when it started to snow. it was almost broken into a couple of other times over the years, but otherwise nothing.

when it was stolen, though, the honda dealer said that they had about 40 or 50 other customers have the same problem that weekend, almost like word got around school that the cool thing to do that weekend if it snowed was to swipe a car and ride around for a few hours. it was city wide and being downtown was no more risk than anywhere else.

i know how it feels to have your car stolen....i heard my car drive away, and i tried to drive around to find the people while i was on hold with 911 for 45 minutes. oh, let me repeat myself... on hold with 911 for 45 minutes. i couldn't find my car, but eventually that night, a cop noticed the kids speeding in my car, and followed them until they abandoned it and ran off.

i was so mad about it all (both being a crime victim...AND waiting on hold with 911 for so long), that i punched a hole in my drywall (yeah, that was dumb) and i yelled at the police when they finally came to take a report.

i actually just sold the car last month, and looked in the pouch behind the front passenger seat, and found some bojangles chicken bones from those kids. :) charming.

anyway... about the point about charlotte being full of crime and stuff... i moved to charlotte from chapel hill, and was told those same things about high crime and all that. honestly, i don't really understand that reputation. I think it is leftovers from the same era a few decades ago when even people in the charlotte suburbs would avoid downtown charlotte like the plague (and many still do). their ideas of downtown charlotte's crime were probably somewhat correct at the time, but are no where near correct now.

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The police department does everything it can with the resources it has. They have too few officers, their crime lab is understaffed, they are underfunded to the point of having to rely on volunteers for clerical and support work, there aren't enough city attornies to prosecute everyone who should be prosecuted, and to add insult to injury, they're being forced to waste time directing traffic for a basketball team nobody gives two sh**s about.

But hey, nobody cares as long as they have big wide highways to take them out of town to their cookie-cutter suburbs where they can live side-by-side with the rest of their tax-hating neighbors. Because they'll be derned if some city's going to give their money to those ... people.

Seriously, though, fighting crime is neither free nor cheap.

MOD EDIT: changed the sentence above to avoid conflicts, even though i 'got' your tone. d

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Heck if I know. I think they have an adequate enough crime lab, they just need more people to staff it. I'm not sure if it's a situation like CMS, where the management of the budget is the problem, and not the budget itself, but they certainly give the impression of having to beg for every bone the city will throw them.

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Neighborhoods like Dilworth are different, people tend to know their neighbors and when someone is around that possibly shouldn't be they tend to notice more often. People are outside more in center city neighborhoods walking and talking to one another.

The lead news story tonight was about a woman jogger that was brutally raped in Dilworth who was abducted right off East Blvd.

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I have lived in Charlotte for about 7 months now... I live in an apartment in the 'uptown' area -- my front door opens to the street and I park in a secure gated parking lot---- I walk to work, however, never walk alone at night---- I have never had any trouble....

Although I do not feel scared, I try to watch my back.... in any city, big or small, I think you have your gangs, your criminals, and your crazies and you need to be alert/aware of your surroundings--not paranoid, just 'street smart'.

If you are considering moving here, I would recommend not letting these rumors of high crime get in your way. Crime can happen anywhere!

Charlotte is a lovely, growing city with lots to offer.....

If it was known, most of these crimes are committed by people who are out on bail or have been arrested 5 or more times. It is time to put these people away for a long time.
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the suburbs aren't 'safe' and neither are the small towns. Most violent crime happens within the family itself, and if you can't trust your mommy, where in the heck are people going to move to be completely 100% safe. I think say if you find that location, chances are you're at higher risk of a violent crime against yourself.

I've even be a crime victim in one of the safest cities on earth, Singapore.

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I have lived in Charlotte for about 7 months now... I live in an apartment in the 'uptown' area -- my front door opens to the street and I park in a secure gated parking lot---- I walk to work, however, never walk alone at night---- I have never had any trouble....

Although I do not feel scared, I try to watch my back.... in any city, big or small, I think you have your gangs, your criminals, and your crazies and you need to be alert/aware of your surroundings--not paranoid, just 'street smart'.

If you are considering moving here, I would recommend not letting these rumors of high crime get in your way. Crime can happen anywhere!

Charlotte is a lovely, growing city with lots to offer.....

I agree that Charlotte is lovely, growing, etc. I know crime in Charlotte could DEFINITELY be worse, but Charlotte's crime rate is higher than average. Even the average for urban cities. It's not a real bad problem now, but if it continues its pattern, than it will be.......

**SE means SouthEast**

City/Crime Rate (per 100/000 people)

St. Louis 14,823.5 (Maybe SE)

Atlanta 13,135.8 (SE)

Orlando 11,729.7 (SE)

Tampa 10,939.6 (SE)

Kansas City 10,520.8 (Maybe SE)

Miami 10,179.9 (SE)

Baltimore 10,168.3 (SE)

Baton Rouge 10,072.3 (SE)

Daytona Beach 9901.2 (SE)

Detroit 9,848.0

Oklohoma City 9,777.7

Little Rock 9,509.6 (SE)

Memphis 9,471.4 (SE)

Dallas 9,383.1 (SE)

Columbus 9,323.8

Albuquerque 8,970.8

Tucson 8,887.4

# 18 Charlotte 8,829.6 (SE)

Tallahassee 8742.8 (SE)

Richmond, VA 8,552.7 (SE)

Seattle 8,236.2

Nashville-Davidson 8,209.5 (SE)

Birmingham 8,173.0 (SE)

Fresno 7,958.4

Portland 7,879.4

Charleston 7,801.7 (SE)

Toledo 7,734.7

Rochester 7,712.6

Chicago 7,551.3

Minneapolis 7,550.8

Milwaukee 7,540.1

Phoenix 7,495.4

Fort Worth 7,298.6 (SE)

Washington D.C. 7,273.2

Albany, NY 7,235.1

San Antonio 7,233.9 (SE)

Newark 7,233.3

New Orleans 7,216.9 (SE)

Corpus Christi 7,136.5 (Maybe SE)

Raleigh 7068.2 (SE)

St. Paul 7,064.3

Jacksonville 6,939.2 (SE)

Houston 6,858.2 (SE)

Tulsa 6,848.5

Philadelphia 6,751.6

Omaha 6,751.3

Oakland 6,714.7

Sacremento 6,574.5

Buffalo 6,567.8

Cincinnati 6,485.8

Mesa 6,445.7

Cleveland 6,440.0

Wichita 6,375.0

Austin 6,323.8 (Maybe SE)

Boston 6,283.3

Arlington, TX 6,242.0

Pittsburg 5,530.8

San Fransisco 5,526.4

El Paso 5,439.0

Reno 5,414.0

Honolulu 5,280.5

Jersey City 5,223.0

Colorodo Springs 5,031.2

Anchorage 5024

Denver 4,962.8

Indianapolis 4,867.7

Los Angeles 4,862.0

Las Vegas 4,647.7

Long Beach, CA 3,974.0

Virginia Beach 3,960.8 (SE)

New York 3,722.6

San Diego 3,661.4

Santa Ana 3,597.1

Anaheim 3,373.9

San Jose 2,566.7

**Charlotte is 18th out of the 75 largest cities in America .... and like someone said, the largest cities have the worst crime**

**Wow.... it shows that the Southeast has the worst crime..... (way to represent) haha**

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Girly, have the police found your car yet? If the car remains in Charlotte then it is usually found a couple days after it is stolen. There are 2 particular neighborhoods that the police look in for stolen cars.

I was also curious, was it a Honda that was stolen. 9 times out of 10 it is a Honda that is stolen here in Charlotte.

Did anyone catch the piece on WBTV the other day about how the FBI is sending their top MS-13 guy to the Charlotte Division? Ends up NC is in the Top 3 States for MS-13 gang activity behind Florida and Mexico.

A personal friend of mine was carjacked by a MS-13 member earlier this year in Concord. The FBI is now flying him to California to testify against the guy in a Federal trail against MS-13 gang members.

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