In the June issue of Charlotte Magazine, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Darrel Stephens claimed that the city couldn't arrest its way out of its crime problem. He also said he'd put Charlotte's crime stats against anyone else's, so Charlotte Magazine did. The shocking results (scroll down to see stats below) show just how big Charlotte's crime problem is.
      Here's what else Stephens had to say:

         "We do have officers in the department who think the problem-solving stuff is a waste of time, that the only way to reduce crime is to arrest people, but it's very hard for me to understand that kind of thinking. You can't arrest your way out of a crime problem. Any logical, clear-thinking person can't come to that conclusion. Those that think we're soft on crime because I talk about crime prevention a lot are misinformed."

   Cities like Richmond, Va., and other Project Exile states have proven again and again that targeted arrests and prosecution of the worst repeat offenders can dramatically decrease a city's crime rate. The criminals programs like Exile target typically make up less then 10 percent of those arrested in a city, but commit over a quarter of its crime.
   Exile is basically just an organized enforcement of existing laws that target violent felons, and it cut the murder rate by 36 percent a year in Richmond and slashed gun crime by 40 percent. 
   Oddly enough, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department doesn't seem too interested in implementing Exile here. In an interview this spring on the Citizen Servatius Show, US Attorney Gretchen Shappert said that her office offered to partner with CMPD to implement a program like Exile here. So far, the police department hasn't taken her up on it, she said.
   Stephens also said some other pretty unbelievable things in the article, like that Charlotte cops go about convincing criminals to alter their behavior by "encourag[ing] programs that attempt to eradicate social problems" like drug addiction, prostitution and juvenile delinquency.
   Here's how Charlotte's crime stats stack up to those in some other similar-sized cities. These stats are a good barometer of what crime could look like here if we were committed to doing something about repeat offenders.

Charlotte                                    Austin                                       San Jose               
Population: 610,949                  Population: 680,899                  Population: 680,899
2005 homicides: 85                   2005 homicides: 26                   2005 homicides: 26
2005 robberies: 3,649               2005 robberies: 1,182              2005 robberies: 884
2005 burglaries: 12,783            2005 burglaries: 7,285              2005 burglaries: 4,049
2005 vehicle thefts: 7,098         2005 vehicle thefts: 2,548         2005 vehicle thefts: 5,507

                                                                                                 -Source: June issue of Charlotte Magazine