local crime decreased in 2021 overall, though some offenses spiked

During the March 1 Lenoir City Council meeting, Chief Brent Phelps delivered the 2021 annual report for the Lenoir Police Department (LPD), first disclaiming that for comparison's sake, 2021 would be compared to 2019 rather than 2020. 

“Everything drops to the floor (in 2020),” he said. “Obviously our country was in shut down, our communities were in shutdown,” Phelps said. 

He further explained that comparing the data, “felt like you were comparing apples to oranges.” 

“So what we did, we tried to compare 2021 and 2019, those numbers seemed more comparable,” he said. 

“I know that’s about as confusing as running in mud…I could’ve had some really great numbers last year, I could’ve talked about how we reduced crime in 2020 and we had things way lower,” he said. “And then this year, I would've had to talk about how everything has really increased,” Phelps said. 

As he moved through the slide show presented to council members,  he offered both commentary and explanation on the numbers reflected on the screen. 

Crimes against people, which refers to a broad array of criminal offenses which usually involve bodily harm, the threat of bodily harm, or other actions committed against the will of an individual, saw a nine percent decrease from 2019 to 2021, while homicide doubled. 

“In the last couple of years we had zero homicides, unfortunately in 2021 we had two very tragic incidents that were domestic related.” Phelps said. 

Crimes against society, which are crimes that negatively affect society, rather than individuals or property, saw a 21 percent reduction overall.

“But when you look at that category, there was one line item where there was an increase,” Phelps said. “It was the weapons law violations…that’s discharging a firearm, carrying a concealed weapon, things along those lines.”

Crimes against property decreased 13%, although larceny towards property increased by 24%, particularly in larceny on motor vehicles. 

“In looking at this data, I talked to several of the chiefs that I know, and the majority of everybody experienced increases in the same areas,” he said.

“Where we’re not happy about some of the increases, it feels like it’s consistent with where we are in the state and within America,” Phelps stated.

Animal complaints, civil disturbances, and domestic violence calls all saw an increase as well. 

Several members of the council spoke up, noting that the rise in domestic calls likely stemmed from the fact that more people were home for more time.

Phelps agreed, “Yes, they were…in 2020 we felt like domestic’s were going up and they were, and they’ve stayed…they went down a little bit but not much.”

“The next two categories, I wish I could tell you I have an answer for…but I don’t”

Involuntary commitments doubled from around 80 in prior years, to 184 in 2021.

“I don’t know if I can quantify or give a specific reason…other places are seeing increases there.”

Phelps went on to acknowledge that the community has new services that haven’t been available long, such as Jonas Hill, Caldwell UNC Health Care’s new mental health facility, and presented the possibility that those services are being utilized, contributing to higher reports. 

“The next one is another one of those community problems…it’s disturbing…and that’s in our overdoses. 

Overall overdoses increased 73% and in opiate specific cases, Phelps said the LPD administered Narcan 55 times in 2021.

“I don’t have an answer to it.” Phelps said. 

After sharing a few words on the devastation that addiction causes, and his hopes to see better ways to address the crisis in the future, Phelps moved on to traffic violations. 

While there were zero traffic fatalities in the City of Lenoir in 2021, the chief expressed concern for certain areas of 321, and explained why citizens may see several patrol cars around the area. 

“When we look at our crashes, typically where they occur are from about the (Smith’s) crossroads to about Exela,” he said. “That’s year after year.”

“When you see us out there, it’s not that we didn’t have anything else to do, it’s specific,” he said. 

He then highlighted several other numbers including that there were 22,000 police service calls, 9,000 special “in house” checks, 759 call follow ups, 136 nuisance cases, and 46 uses of force.

“Out of those 46 (uses of force), not all of those are what you would think,” he said. “Anytime we point a weapon at somebody, that’s a use of force,” Phelps said. “If we are having to use force, they’ve failed to comply with commands or our direction. We are being reactive to their reactions." 

He went on to explain that the LPD had around 26,000 citizen contacts with the police, outside of community events. 

“Out of all of those citizen contacts, there were 46 incidents where we were not able to get people to do what we asked them to do, or told them to do, and had to use some kind of force,” he said. “That number is extremely low” 

The charts below detail the number of charges of a given crime between 2019 and 2022, with crimes that reflect zero incidents in both years being omitted. 

To view the complete LPD annual report, including numbers for 2020 and more statistics, click the link below:

https://www.cityoflenoir.com/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/91