Annual Report for 2007 - Charlotte-Mecklenburg County

Your Input Shapes Our Work
Chief Darrel Stephens and other members of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department met with residents from every
police division over four months to talk about community priorities.
More than 2,000 people attended the 15 Safe Community
Forums. Some nights more than 300 people were there.
Together they identified dozens of issues – some specific to
particular neighborhoods and others affecting all of
Mecklenburg County and beyond.
“We were very pleased with the response,” Stephens said.
“I think the attendance was the combination of interest in
the redistricting project and the strong effort we made to
ensure the community was aware of the forums. The key
thing that was reinforced in the meetings was that
organized neighborhoods were more effective at resolving
problems in a shorter period of time.”
Traffic, juvenile crime, gangs, property crime and quality of
life issues such as overgrown yards, boarded-up houses and
abandoned vehicles came
up repeatedly during the
series of meetings.
About 150 people met
with nearly 100 police
officers at a final meeting
in May to talk about what
the department and
Charlotte-Mecklenburg
residents can do to tackle
the issues.
Feedback from that meeting and the others was used to
create the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department’s
strategic plan. That plan is expected to be adopted later
this year, after a new police chief arrives.
Public Affairs Director Julie Hill, who coordinated the
forums, said that at nearly every meeting, the department
was able to engage people who hadn’t connected before
with police in their neighborhoods. That alone, she said,
made the forums a success.
“It reminded people of the broader definition of community
safety,” she said “It’s not just crime. The lion’s share of
issues were quality of life issues.”
Deputy Chief Jerry Sennett speaks to residents about police priorities in their community.
Chief’s Award for Excellence in Policing
Officer Marco Aires, Officer Travis Lee Archer, Officer Stephen H. Begley Jr., Officer C. Travis Childs, Officer Brian S. Carey,
Officer Tricia Edwards, Officer Donald Eubanks, Officer Rafael Hernandez, Officer B.P. Matthews, Officer R.B. Reese,
Officer Aaron B. Skipper, Officer Jeffrey Wheaton, Candace Inge (Charlotte DOT)
This team worked to cut down foliage, upgrade lighting, reduce speed limits and raise awareness in the North Sharon Amity Road area.
Their work decreased crash rates by 40 percent, cut auto thefts by half, reduced robberies by 63 percent and decreased traffic fatalities.
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