Asheville’s recently announced 17.4 percent spike in violent crime for 2022 over the previous year was totally predictable, local Fraternal Order of Police President Rondell Lance told the Daily Planet during an April 8 telephone interview.

More specifically, Lance, who is retired after a lengthy career in police work, explained that the city, along with Buncombe County, has fostered an environment where criminals know they can break the law and face little or no consequences for their actions.

Asheville’s skyrocketing violent crime last year was driven largely by aggravated assaults, Asheville Police Chief David Zack noted during the city’s March 28 meeting of the Environment and Safety Committee during which, according to a report in the Asheville Citizen Times, he stressed that “presence (of police officers) matters.”

(Lance leads Asheville’s Harold C. Enloe Lodge 1, which has more than 250 members. The FOP members include “law enforcement officers and civilians from the Asheville Police Department, the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office, HCSHP, N.C. Probation and Parole, and many others,” according to the lodge’s website.)

So how does Lance evaluate the city’s violent crime spike that is “driven” by aggravated assaults?

After a short pause, Lance noted that that is an even worse statistic for the public, as “aggravated assaults are very painful” — if one is the victim, versus someone stealing an individual’s property.

Meanwhile, in what Zack said some may read as a glimmer of good news, he reported at the ESC meeting that property crime in Asheville during 2022 was down 4.9 percent over the previous year. (The FBI defines property crime as burglary, larceny-theft, motor-vehicle theft and arson.) 

Regarding Asheville’s decrease in property crimes in 2022, Lance — characteristically — expressed skepticism over whether that statistic is an accurate reflection of reality in the city.

“Property crime decrease?” the FOP president asked, rhetorically. “I think a lot of places — and people — are ‘handling it’ (property crime) themselves,” given that most businesses and individuals throughout the area know that the Asheville Police Department is operating “with 40 percent of sworn staff unavailable at this time,” according to the APD.

If the situation is as Lance surmises, then he said most property crimes no longer are being reported to the police and, therefore, not recorded into the system that produces the statistics that Zack has cited.

As for violent crimes, Lance asserted, “I was privy to some discussions recently ... and some downtown Asheville merchants said (at the meetings) that they fear even going outside to empty their trash and walking to their cars after work” — day or night.

“They’re even thinking about taking people (associated with their businesses) to their cars (when they are ready to leave) because they fear being accosted while walking. This is a concern during the day, the night... all of the time,” Lance told the Daily Planet.

“In the past, we had a bike team,” of which he was a member during his service as an APD officer. However, “because of the (APD staffing) shortage, they had to disband the bike team. That (bike team presence and visibility) especially was helpful downtown in discouraging criminal behavior, Lance said, 

“I know the APD is working (hard) to get more people into their department... So they’re working on that, but it’s going to be slow. If it’s people who are not law enforcement-certified, you’re looking at a year before someone new is able to go alone on the road.”

However, he noted that “if they come from another (law enforcement) agency and are already certified, they could be ready to go on the road in two weeks to a month in what is called a “lateral transfer.”It’s hard to get local people because (to join the APD) because they know — full well — what goes on (regarding the anti-police and anti-law enforcement environment in Asheville) — and they’re hesistant to come work for the city” because of that.”

Then, the FOP president noted, “I talked personally with Chief (David_ Zack last week (last week of March) and they are working on pay issues and incentive issues” to attract more police recruits. “So he (Zack) is very hopeful they can get a lot of that done” soon. “My hope is they’ll get this turned around.” 

After a brief pause, Lance added, “I think they (Asheville City Council) have realized that this anti-police narrative (that, he contends, many on council have embraced) is having results. And you’ve got to have a DA (Todd Williams) who supports the police and holds people accountable for their crimes,” contrary to what he has seen during Williams’s tenure as D.A. to date. “There have to be consequences for breaking the law.”

“The biggest issue in this area is our elected officials, who started this anti-police environment and … it goes all the way up to the DA — and the (local) judges”.

Lance then reiterated, “When you have this kind of environment, crime will flourish... So it’s the perfect environment in the CIty of Ashevile for crime to flourish.

“I’m hoping everyone will see that this is the effect of having a system that doesn’t hold people accountable.

“The elected officials in Buncombe and the City of Asheville are at fault for creating this environment that we’re in now.”

As for the APD’s challenge in recruiting new officers, Lance noted that, “across the state, I’m hearing people (experienced officers elsewhere) laugh when I tell them about coming to Asheville.” He said they tell him they will not even consider working in Asheville’s notoriously anti-police and anti-law enforcement environment.

 ives of the police department we can get this built back up. I think it could take a year or two, I believe, before it gets better.