Raleigh Police, US Attorney tout new ‘proven’ partnership to tackle violent crime

Anna Johnson
·4 min read

The Raleigh Police Department will partner with the U.S. Department of Justice in a three-year effort to reduce crime in the city.

The department was one of five police departments the U.S. Department of Justice chose for the National Public Safety Partnership.

“It will put the city of Raleigh in a league of its own in its ability to access federal grant funding, to support intelligence-led and community-focused policing,” U.S. Attorney Michael Easley Jr. said during a Thursday news conference.

“This is a proven platform that gets real results,” he said. “It reduces shootings, it solves homicides and improves the quality of life for everyone that this program touches.”

How will the partnership help Raleigh fight crime?

There were 33 homicides and 502 total shooting incidents in Raleigh last year, according to police.

The partnership will give Raleigh training and support to better understand its specific challenges.

Even one homicide is one too many, said Raleigh Police Chief Estella Patterson. “This partnership ... is about getting that number to zero,” she said. “Now, is it a moonshot? Perhaps, but my goal ... is to make Raleigh the safest city we can make it in this country.”

The DOJ will provide “expedited” assistance in eight areas:

  • Community engagement

  • Constitutional policing

  • Crime analysis

  • Crime justice collaboration

  • Federal partnerships

  • Gun violence

  • Investigations

  • Technology

Growth and resource needs within the department are two of Raleigh’s challenges, Patterson said.

“As our city grows, we experience the issues that come with that growth,” she said. “Of course, there’s traffic congestion, there’s highway construction, there’s other infrastructure impacts that we’re all feeling. And there’s also crime, which can balloon as more people come and relocate to our great city.”

The Raleigh Police Department has just under 90 vacancies, but a new academy class will graduate next week that will fill some of those spots.

How has the partnership worked in other cities?

Raleigh is one of five locations selected for the program through an application process. The other four sites are Vallejo, California; Knoxville, Tennessee; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and San Antonio, Texas.

Two other North Carolina municipalities have participated since the program began in 2014. Greensboro was selected in 2022 and Salisbury in 2018.

In Salisbury, the police expanded their social media and public information office, hired more crime analysis and technology staffers and created a regional crime intelligence center. The city doubled the number of detectives assigned to investigations and improved its homicide clearance rate from 40% to 100%.

Other cities in the partnership have reported reducing homicides, creating gun violence intervention programs, creating new cross-departmental databases and funding nonprofits to serve high-risk youth.

What have Raleigh police done downtown?

Raleigh will learn from other cities that have partnered with the DOJ, Patterson said, citing Sacramento’s violence interrupters and efforts to fight crime in their entertainment district.

After business owners, residents and workers bombarded Raleigh leaders with complaints last summer, Raleigh police took a “zero-tolerance” approach to downtown crime, including in the Glenwood South entertainment district and around the GoRaleigh station and transit center.

From Sept. 11 through Dec. 1, the police reported 755 charges from “proactive engagements,” including over 500 misdemeanor charges and 300 arrests in the downtown core, which includes the bus station, Moore Square and Fayetteville Street. In Glenwood South, the city reported a near tripling of illegal guns seized.

Raleigh police chief wants to build community trust

Over the years, the Raleigh Police Department has faced criticism and lawsuits. Last year the city paid the family of Soheil Mojarrad $1.25 million after Mojarrad was shot and killed by a police officer. Mojarrad was accused of stealing a cellphone and brandishing a knife at the officer.

Raleigh also agreed to pay three families a total of $350,000 in a federal lawsuit that said a now fired Raleigh police detective and others conspired to fabricate drug-trafficking allegations. The first lawsuit in that matter was settled in 2021 for $2 million.

Patterson said she invites activists and community members to be a part of this new initiative to help reduce violent crime.

“We want the input from the community to be able to build that trust,” she said. “We are working extensively to try to build that trust through different initiatives and programs (and) to just be visible in the community and let them know that they can trust us. We know that we still have a road to go in building that trust. But we are devoted to that. And we’re dedicated to doing that.”