Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Project Overview
In response to rising violent crime, particularly gun crime, in Winston-Salem, NC, the Winston-Salem Police Department (WSPD) will implement an innovative, data-driven strategy including a real-time crime center, new technology, and a new practitioner-researcher partnership to evaluate these new approaches. WSPD will create a real-time crime center, which will have the ability to extract and streamline various camera feeds across the city and continuously update crime maps, bulletins, and case management, integrating with computer-aided dispatch (CAD). WSPD will use the real-time crime center to share information with officers in the field, with the goal of reducing gun crime and violent crime, and increase perceptions of community safety. Mitigation of the precipitous gun crime rates will be accomplished through intelligence-led policing, technological innovation, and community partnership.
Methods and Findings
- 39.6 percent increase in Part 1 Violent Crime, from 1,918 in 2015 to 2,678 in 2019.
- 60.4 percent increase in aggravated assaults, from 1,358 in 2015 to 2,178 in 2019.
- 116 percent increase in gun crime, from 895 in 2015 to 1,929 in 2019.
- In 2019, there were 31 homicides, the most the city has experienced since 1994. Of those 31 homicides, 21 were gun-related.
- Rapes have remained at an average of 45.19 per 100,000; larcenies, 3,653.75 per 100,000; and motor vehicle thefts over the past five years have averaged 446.6 per 100,000.
- In 2019, the Department seized 900 firearms, an increase from just 685 seized in 2018. The projections for 2020 are over 1,000 firearm seizures.
