Wilmington sees drop in firearm-related crimes in 2025, police report
WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY-TV) – The Wilmington Police Department is reporting a decrease in crimes involving a firearm over the past year compared to 2024. According to data obtained by WWAY, the city has seen a reduction in weapon violations, aggravated assault and other incidents.
“Always great news anytime we have crime going down,” said Ryan Zuidema, Wilmington Police Chief.
Zuidema said while it can be hard to track crime trends year-to-year, a decrease in crime is a trend the department has seen over the past five years.
“There’s a very small number of people in our community that are responsible for a disproportionate amount of violent crime and those are the folks that have no business in Wilmington,” Zuidema said.
According to WPD data, the city saw a more than 26% decrease in weapon violations in 2025 compared to 2024. Data shows a more than 34 percent difference in rape and sex offenses involving a firearm over the past year.
Aggravated assault including shootings were also down more than 71% in 2025. The data also shows a more than 50% increase in robbery compared to 2024.
“We may have had a stretch of a certain type of crime in a certain area we’ll make sure that we’re spending more time in those areas or there might be a specific individual or small group of individuals responsible for that and we’ll put additional resources towards them,” Zuidema said.
Zuidema said when it comes to combatting crime committed by felons, the department works hand-in-hand with the district attorney’s office.
“Making sure that they understand if citizen “X” is arrested for whatever and that individual is a felon we’re going to make sure they understand what others things we believe they may be involved in,” Zuidema said.
In regard to call for service involving the unhoused, Zuidema said they are hoping to begin an onboarding for four new social workers soon who will assist police officers when responding to these calls.
“We are in the final stages of offers right now and we’re in negotiations with them, my hope is that we will have them onboarded probably within the next month or so,” Zuidema said.
As Zuidema looks forward, he’s setting his sights on increasing officer recruitment and retention. He said the city manager, Becky Hawke has been working on a proposal that would provide a living age for all employees as well as an increase for officers.
“If we’re doing a really good job of retaining folks we have we don’t work as hard at recruiting folks,” Zuidema said.
