CMPD Releases Promising Crime Stats to Start 2025

CMPD on Thursday released its first-quarter crime stats from 2025, lauding a drop in crime compared to the same three-month period in 2024. 

According to the department, citywide crime fell 6% overall during the first quarter of the year, which ranges from Jan. 1 to March 31, including a 17% drop in violent crime and 4% decrease in property crime compared to the same period in 2024.

Over the entire calendar year, 2024 ended with a 3% drop in overall crime and 1% drop in violent crime overall, though the department specified that 2024 saw a rise in violent crime victimization, which refers to the number of people victimized by a single crime such as a suspect shooting into a building with multiple people inside. 

While crime stats covering a three-month span do not indicate a meaningful trend on their own, the department is hoping the strong start to 2025 helps continue last year’s overall drop in crime.

“By implementing innovative policing strategies and fostering strong community partnerships, we are making measurable progress in reducing crime and enhancing public safety across Charlotte,” said CMPD Chief Johnny Jennings on Thursday. “Together with our community partners, we are building safer neighborhoods, strengthening community trust and ensuring that all residents feel secure.” 

One such strategy has been the Coordinated Overlap Response Effort, known as CORE 13, which takes patrol officers from all 13 divisions and focuses them into areas with increased victimization according to real-time data. 

Launched in late 2024, CORE 13 was implemented in “hotspots” around the Nations Ford/Arrowood Road corridors, North Tryon Street near Tom Hunter Road, and the Beatties Ford Road corridor during the fourth quarter of last year, leading to 75 seized firearms and 123 arrests in two months. 

During a January review of last year’s crime stats, Jennings credited the CORE 13 program with lowering the citywide violent crime rate by 4% in the fourth quarter of 2024.

In the first quarter of this year, CORE 13 officers addressed 82 violent incidents, made 25 arrests and seized 17 firearms, according to Thursday’s report. 

Maj. Bret Balamucki claimed the department has seen a significant drop in crime in areas where CORE 13 has focused its efforts in 2025, including a 37% drop in violent crime incidents in the Steele Creek Division and a 60% reduction in the Beatties Ford and LaSalle area. 

“This demonstrates the real impact of data-driven policing,” Balamucki said on Thursday. 

Robert Dawkins, a grassroots organizer with Safe Coalition NC, said he is encouraged any time he sees a drop in local crime rates and appreciates the hard work of CMPD, though he emphasized that community organizations like Alternatives to Violence, Block Love, Hearts For The Invisible, Save our Children Movement, and We Are One Charlotte are also contributing to the reduction.

“We hope that we see further reductions in all crime going into the summer months and look forward to the city starting a youth-led social norms program based on the CDC’s Youth Violence Prevention Center model that we have been championing coming online soon,” Dawkins said. 

Launched by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Youth Violence Prevention Centers are described as “academic-community collaborations that advance the science and practice of youth violence prevention … [by] developing, implementing, and rigorously evaluating innovative strategies to prevent violence and create safer, healthier family and community environments for youth.” 

Dawkins emphasized that a strategy combining the efforts of CMPD, community-based organizations and engaged parents will be what it takes to build “a safe and constructive community.” 

“I have faith that these partnerships will bring that to fruition in Charlotte,” he added.  

One of the more significant drops reported in the first-quarter crime stats this year has been in homicides, with 20 murders documented during that span in 2025 compared to 32 in 2024, nearly a 38% decrease. 

Despite an overall drop in violent crime, the 110 homicides reported in Charlotte in 2024 marked a 25% increase compared to the year before. 

The map above shows the narratives behind killings that Queen City Nerve has tracked thus far in Charlotte in 2025. Black markers signify deaths by gun violence, green markers signify killings that have been deemed justified, red markers signify stabbings, yellow markers signify murder by vehicle, purple markers signify deaths by trauma or unknown cause, and blue markers signify police killings.

As part of its budget proposals released in March, the People’s Budget Coalition called on Charlotte City Council to allocate $500,000 to continue the Alternatives to Violence (ATV) program on Beatties Ford Road. 

As the first ATV program launched in Charlotte, the Beatties Ford Road program is not currently funded through 2026 as other ATV programs on West Boulevard and the Nations Ford corridor are.

Read more: People’s Budget Coalition Releases New Recommendations for City Budget

Queen City Nerve’s tracking shows that, of the 20 homicides documented during Q1 in 2025, one occurred on the Beatties Ford Road corridor and another on the West Boulevard Corridor, with none reported along the Nations Ford/Arrowood Road corridors. 

As noted above, Maj. Balamucki also cited significant drops in overall violent crime along Beatties Ford Road and in the Steele Creek Division where the Nations Ford ATV team operates. 

During a presentation to Charlotte City Council on March 24, Shawn Heath with the city manager’s office proposed a number of suggestions for funding investments and policy to address crime problems and public safety in Charlotte. 

City investments and policy recommendations included investing more money in CMPD with plans to grow the department starting in fiscal year 2027, enhancing local ordinances to better address nuisance properties, and utilizing drones as first responders by leveraging technology as a “force multiplier” to reduce risks to officers.

The idea involving the implementation of drones drew strong criticism from council members LaWana Mayfield and Tiawana Brown at the March meeting.  

In terms of evidence-based community programming, Heath suggested expanding Atrium’s hospital-based violence intervention program, Project BOOST; launching a youth-led social norms campaign, as referenced above by Dawkins; and seeking opportunities to connect ongoing city programming and investments to re-entry programming to reduce recidivism and enhance economic opportunity for formerly incarcerated residents.

Some of these suggestions will be worked into the budget process while others will come in front of council for separate votes.