Raleigh City Council Work Session – Crime Update & Public Safety Partnership (June 10, 2025)
STREAMING COPY IN PREPARATION — RECORDING AVAILABLE FROM THE ORIGINAL SOURCE
Raleigh City Council Crime Statistics and Public Safety Partnership Update – Work Session (June 10, 2025)
Chief of Police Rico Boyce presented a comprehensive crime and operations update during the city council work session on June 10, 2025. The presentation covered year-to-date crime statistics through June 9, 2025, the department's first Summer Action Plan, and progress under the federal Public Safety Partnership (PSP) grant. Chief Boyce emphasized transparency, strategic resource allocation, and community engagement as key pillars of his leadership.
Discussion Items
- Crime Statistics Overview: Chief Boyce reported that overall crime in Raleigh is trending downward compared to the same period in 2024. Violent crime remained flat year-to-date, with 15 homicides (unchanged from 2024), 14 of which have been cleared by arrest. Aggravated assaults decreased 7% overall and firearm-related aggravated assaults dropped 14%. Child abuse cases declined 31%. However, robberies increased 19% (185 incidents versus 155 in 2024), with robberies from businesses up 20%. Property crimes decreased 8%, driven by a 16% drop in motor vehicle thefts (793 stolen in 2025 vs. 946 in 2024); 676 vehicles have been recovered.
- Strategic Priorities: Chief Boyce outlined five strategic priorities: employee development and wellness, community engagement, accountability and leadership, crime reduction strategies, and operational efficiency. He noted that a quarterly crime statistics report will be published and shared with media and the public.
- Public Safety Partnership (PSP): Raleigh was awarded a three-year PSP grant in 2024. The partnership includes four strategic goals: improving intelligence sharing, reducing juvenile violent crime, addressing human trafficking and child exploitation (through the new HEAT unit), and developing a community violence interrupter (CVI) program. Of 19 recommendations from a non-fatal shooting assessment, 15 have already been completed. A violent retaliatory dispute risk assessment is in progress.
- Summer Action Plan (June 1 – August 31, 2025): The plan focuses on strategic enforcement, community engagement, and specialized units. Key initiatives include:
- Creation of a dedicated Hospitality District captain (Captain Van Antwerp) and a second hospitality squad, plus new bike and transit units for downtown.
- Deployment of school resource officers to the Greenway unit during summer.
- Saturation patrols on major corridors (Capital, Saunders, Glenwood, New Bern) for DWI and traffic enforcement.
- Expansion of the “Cops on the Block” program citywide, with door hangers and QR codes for residents.
- Youth camps including a new IBM STEM camp for girls (already full), basketball camps, tennis camps, and baseball camp with a new pitching machine.
- Friday night basketball at indoor community centers (Roberts Park, Biltmore, Chavis, Green Road), starting June 27, in partnership with Parks and Rec.
- Community Engagement and Alternative Response: Chief Boyce highlighted the ACORNS unit (crisis outreach) and plans to expand it to all six police districts. He expressed support for civilianizing some duties, citing the CARES unit and call-diversion as positive steps. He also committed to reviving the Citizens Police Academy, with curriculum development underway for fall 2025.
- Council Questions and Clarifications: Council members asked for:
- Social media promotion of summer programs (Mayor Pro Tem Forte).
- Data on greenway incidents and geographic breakdowns of robberies (Councilors Silver, Jones, Harrison, Branch).
- Trends since 2019 and peer city comparisons (Councilor Harrison, Councilor Patton).
- RPD’s role in peaceful protests – Chief Boyce affirmed support for First Amendment rights with safety management.
- Physical fitness incentives for officers – Chief Boyce noted interest in a POPAT incentive program but acknowledged budget constraints.
- Connection with registered neighborhoods and the Police Advisory Board for CVI programs (Councilor Jones).
Key Outcomes
- No formal votes were taken; the work session was informational.
- Chief Boyce announced that the Citizens Police Academy will return in fall 2025.
- The city manager noted that a follow-up item will be brought to council next week.
- RPD will continue publishing quarterly crime statistics; second quarter data will be released after June 30.
- Council directed staff to explore social media toolkits for summer program promotion and to provide historical trend and peer-city crime data in future manager reports.
- The expansion of the ACORNS unit and consideration of a physical fitness incentive program will be discussed further with the city manager’s office.
Meeting Transcript
Oh the no one's a little bit more than a little bit. Go ahead and call the meeting to order. Counselor Silver will be right in. And thank you for joining us, and we have our work session. I'll turn it over to our city manager. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. In today's work session, we have our police chief, Rico Boyce, who celebrated his 100th day yesterday as the police chief. So happy anniversary, Chief. He said yes. And so he is going to provide a crime and operations update for Raleigh Police Department. Yeah. Good afternoon, Mayor, Council, City Manager, Rico Boyce, RPD's chief. I'm excited to be here. Still want to say thank you for this opportunity to lead the men and women of the Raleigh Police Department. Today, like the manager said, I will be providing a crime and operations update more specifically for this fiscal this year from January 1 up until just yesterday, January 9th. Not much has changed overnight, so my information is very accurate. I say June 9th, sorry. So my very first day is March March 1, 2025. I thought it was important that I set the tone of my leadership as the Chief of Police. So on March 1st, I sent out the priorities that I am going to use to guide and lead this organization. I identified five strategic priorities that will help me make decisions in keeping this department moving forward as well as keeping this community safe. First strategic priority was employee development and wellness. It's important that the men and women of the Raleigh Police Department, that they are well not only mentally, but as well as physically. I will be identifying areas within the police department that we need to improve on. Most importantly, our community engagement and how we interact with certain communities within the City of Raleigh. Next is accountability and leadership. If I want to produce a high caliber, a very professional organization, I gotta make sure that they are properly trained. I gotta make sure they have the skills and the tools to do their job effectively. On the flip side of that, I got to make sure that they are held accountable when they fail to do their job. And that is going to be a priority for me as the chief of police. So these five strategic priorities is how I'm going to lead this department. This is how I'm going to make decisions that's going to keep this community safe. And this is the blueprint that all the men and women in the Raleigh Police Department will follow. Crime reduction strategy. The Raleigh Police Department, we have a lot of resources that we use to keep this community safe. It's important that I'm very strategic about where I place my resources to keep this community safe. When I assume the role of chief of police, one of my first priorities was to closely examine how we collect, analyze, and share crime stats with our both internal and external stakeholders. In April, well, we began to share our first quarter crime stats with our internal stakeholders. This quarterly report will be something that will be ongoing. We just about to come up on the end of the second quarter here at the end of June, and I will make sure that I publish and I show what our crime stats are for the second quarter. Those stats will be shared with our news media outlets as well as our community. It's important that they know exactly what is going on in this city. So I will make sure that we share that data. Our second quarter reporting period, like I say, will conclude later this month, and I'll be reporting out on year-to-date stats at that time. I am pleased to report that overall crime in Raleigh is currently trending down, downward compared to the same period in 2024. This is a promising sign that reflects the efforts of our department, our partners, and our community at large. From the beginning of my tenure, I emphasize a simple but critical goal to make Raleigh one of the safest cities to live and work. A key part of this achieving this goal is being open with the public, being very transparent about our crime stats and our challenges. Let's begin with our homicides. In 2025, the number of homicides remain unchanged from this time last year.
openpublica.com