Hendersonville crime numbers drop, but police chief says they can change at any moment
HENDERSONVILLE - Now in his third year Hendersonville Police Chief, Blair Myhand, who also is also serving this year as president of the North Carolina Association of Police Chiefs, said he is glad to see the city's crime numbers down from a year ago as published in the police department's June 2023 report.
Compared to the June 2022 report, crimes are decreasing. Below are a few examples:
Criminal arrests: Down nearly 50% (from 114 to 58).
Larcenies: Down nearly 50% from 48 to 25.
Drug offenses: Down about 66% (from 60 to 20).
Looking back over the past five years, most of the crimes have also decreased. Examples are:
Burglaries (from 128 in 2019 to 94 in 2022).
Theft from motor vehicle (from 188 in 2019 to 61 in 2022).
Other larcenies (348 in 2019 to 328 in 2022).
Myhand told the Times-News on July 24 that there isn't just one reason why the crimes have been decreasing.
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"I think there are a multitude of things that cause that. My direction to staff is that they focus on combatting crime, reducing crime and preventing crime. I want them to be police officers. I think they are slowly getting more accustomed to that type of approach of policing," he said.
Longtime downtown business owner Barbara Hughes, owner of Narnia Studios on Main Street, said although the crime rate may be down, she has seen some problems with "graffiti, vandalism and shoplifting."
"However, we have a very responsive downtown police officer who never fails to follow up on complaints. Also, our Hendersonville Police Chief Blair Myhand is always willing to listen to our issues. This, more than anything, helps keep the problems to a minimum. Usually, they know who to look for and question when any trouble arises," Hughes said.
Myhand said his officers are also using new technologies to help lessen their workloads and help them focus more on fighting crimes.
"Some of those technologies are ways that help us identify suspects more rapidly and take away the man hours of manual searching of different databases in order to determine who suspects are. It's really designed to expedite our follow-up investigation process. When we can do that and we decrease those man hours, it allows us to close cases more rapidly. That frees up more time to go back and do more proactive policing.
"One of the tools we are using is in beta testing," he said, but wouldn't say what the beta testing is for. "We are not paying for it currently. However, if we buy it, our annual cost will be slightly over $5,000. I want to see the efficacy of it before we spend any dollars on it. The other technology we are currently using comes at $4,950 annually. It would be safe to say annual expenditures for technology at this point is less than $11,000 annually," he said.
Myhand wouldn't disclose what specific technologies are being used by the police department.
He said another factor in the drop in crime rate could be Hendersonville's older population. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2022 statistics, Hendersonville's population is made up of more than 30% of people 65 and older, whereas Buncombe County is made up of 21% who are 65 and older.
"To be honest, they're not out in the middle of the night running around and committing crimes in large part. That's really not what that demographic does," he said. "So, we don't have a lot of those issues. The town gets pretty quiet overnight for the most part. That doesn't mean we're immune from crime, because we're certainly not. But I think that lends itself to having a lower crime rate."
Myhand, who was hired as Hendersonville's police chief in 2021 after serving as chief of police of Clayton from 2017-2021, said while it's nice to see a drop in the crime rate numbers, they could change at any moment.
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"This might just be a quiet moment in time. We won't know for years if we're on a steady downward trend or if this just happened to be some post-COVID dynamic," he said. "I try not to get caught up in crime rates, because they fluctuate. They move up and they move down. I'm glad they seem to be going down now. I hope that that remains that way.
"I can't sit there and say, 'I'm the sole reason that's happening.' I'd never say that. There's a lot that goes into it. I do know we are working very hard to try and minimize the drain on officers from getting tied up in things that just take time and allow them time to focus on fighting crime and preventing crime within their particular beats."
Myhand said keeping his force at full staff is yet another key factor. The police department has 47 sworn positions and about 65 total positions, Myhand said.
"I hope this week, I'll be able to say we're at 100%. We've hired four people within the last two weeks," he said. "But even if we get to 100%, unfortunately, it just doesn't last. I have people retiring and people that could go to other agencies.
In contrast to Hendersonville's numbers, Asheville's crime rate has increased, according to the Asheville Police Department.
"Other agencies increase their salaries, sometimes significantly," he said. "It's difficult for us to combat that. Hendersonville can only afford to pay so much money. We try to attract people differently than if we were paying more than everybody else. It's a challenge," Myhand said. "When we lose 10 or 20 percent of officers, and of course we're not there, but if we got to that point, that's a real impact to public safety, because that's fewer police officers that are on the street. So we don't want to get to that point."
Dean Hensley is the news editor for the Hendersonville Times-News. Email him with tips, questions and comments at DHensley@gannett.com. Please help support this kind of local journalism with a subscription to the Hendersonville Times-News.
This article originally appeared on Hendersonville Times-News: Myhand: Many factors involved in Hendersonville's drop in crime rate
