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Police chief says special enforcement unit helped reduce violent crime; council calls for youth programs
Summary
The Goldsboro police chief reported a drop in Part 1 crimes and ShotSpotter alerts after establishing a Special Enforcement Unit; councilmembers urged more youth programming and school resource officers to address gang involvement among young people.
The Goldsboro Police Chief told the council the department's Special Enforcement Unit (SEU) and data-driven deployments coincided with a decline in several measured crime indicators over the past year.
"Our crime overall for the year actually went down 5%." the chief said, and cited a 43% drop in ShotSpotter (sound-sensor) alerts compared with 2023. The chief said those results followed targeted deployments during an uptick in violent crime and the standing up of the SEU for concentrated enforcement in problem areas.
The chief and several councilmembers said enforcement alone will not solve youth involvement in gangs. "We can't police our way out of this problem," the chief said, adding that the department wants to pair enforcement with community and youth programs and to restore school resource officers to local schools.
Council members asked for greater coordination across departments to address blight and vacant properties, which the chief said often become locations where gang activity concentrates. The chief urged partnerships with other city departments and community organizations to couple law enforcement action with prevention efforts aimed at young people, whom the chief described as "11, 12 year olds" already exposed to gang recruitment.
Council members generally endorsed the approach of continuing targeted enforcement while expanding prevention and youth services; the transcript records no formal vote tied to public-safety policy during the session excerpt.
