CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department is putting an emphasis on stopping juvenile crimes but they’re not the only ones.
One afforable housing complex is lowering crime rates as a community and so far they’re seeing a success.
“We don't do this on our own, the residents who live here know what's happening here, and they know who the troublemakers are. So they needed a safe space to be able to share what's happening. We created this 'see something, say something' program that does have a financial reward so they can let us know what's happening because they know better than anyone," said Cheron Porter, Inlivian representative.
Porter tells us, at one point Little Rock Apartments in Charlotte were considered an unsafe community... with several concerns including lack of staffing.
"We took over the property in November of 2022, and when we came to the site there was only one staff person, there was no maintenance people, rent hadn't been collected in a better part of two years," explained Porter.
The other major concern was the rising crime in the complex, they say grew because of lack of surveillance.
"We're not police officers, we can't stop crime, but we can certainly help with solutions to it. Again,we don't do it by ourselves again, we do it with partners and key to that, yes, was getting operational cameras," said Porter.
Cameras were just one part of the solution according to Porter, it also took more street lights, patrols from the CMPD Westover Division and trimming of hedges to avoid hideouts for unwanted activity.
"We've had a 56% reduction in violent crimes here, that's tremendous, it's also said, be honest with you, it's hard because no one should live in that environment and we don't want our residents, our residents, to live in that environment whatsoever," said Porter.
You can tell residents feel the same way too, when you visit the neighborhood.
On street signs, there’s posters that say 'stop the killing' and 'stop the violence' and 'be the change' or sidewalks that are engraved with RIP.
"Listen, that takes that's accountability, right? That message is all about accountability. if you want to see a change, you got to be able to open up your open up your mouth and let us know what's going on. Again, that 'see something, say something' you can do it anonymously, you can share with us what's happening, and we're making a change. We are being the change, they are the change, and it's changed this community quite a bit," said Porter.
Over the past few months, CMPD announced a new initiative to combat juvenile crime, called J.A.D.E.
In 2023 officers made more than 3,000 juvenile arrests, a 34% increase from the year prior.
More than 100 juveniles were suspects in shooting investigations, up 33%.
Porter tells Spectrum News 1, that the neighborhood is also providing programs for teens as summer kicks off so that they’re active and avoiding activities to enable bad behavior.