WPD: Crime down in public housing

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Wilmington Police Department’s 2014 annual report shows an overall 30 percent drop in crime in the city’s public housing communities from 2013 to 2014.

The police department and New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office created a joint task force to combat gang crime and make housing projects a safer place, in the fall of 2013. The next year, Wilmington’s public housing communities saw big drops in murders, assaults, burglaries and thefts — though the number of robberies did go up from six to ten.

Linda Rawley with the Wilmington Police Department says the decrease in crime is attributed to that joint task force as well as the Wilmington Housing Authority’s efforts to revamp their neighborhoods.

Click here to view the entire report.