Stuck between rising crime and a drug epidemic, the Charleston Police Department said it needs a new plan to deal with problems facing the community.
A report released Thursday shows an increase in crime across every district and nearly every crime category in Charleston last year. Overall, crime increased about 17 percent across eight categories, with larceny being the highest by far in every region.
The report tracks categories of crime that police agencies are required to report to the FBI each year.
While reported sexual assaults dropped in Charleston — from 54 in 2015 to 36 in 2016 — cases of murder, robbery, malicious wounding, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft and auto breaking and entering increased last year.
“The reality is that the heroin/opioid epidemic is driving almost all of our crime,” Chief Brent Webster said in a prepared statement. “That fact does not make it any more acceptable so my staff and division commanders are exploring different law enforcement strategies to ensure we are controlling what variables we can.”
Webster emphasized the importance of both rehabilitating addicts and taking down violent drug dealers.
The department is concerned about people like David Young, who pleaded guilty in federal court to selling 40 pounds of crystal methamphetamine and shooting into an occupied car in St. Albans.
The department also is focused on people who have found themselves on the other end of Charleston's drug problem. Grant Crul was accused of breaking into Good Shepherd Veterinary Hospital and stealing medications in 2016.
Police found him passed out at a nearby Donut Connection shortly after.
Of the three regions listed in Thursday's report, the West district, which includes the West Side and North Charleston, showed the lowest increase in crime, falling at least 7 percent below the other districts. Increased enforcement on the West Side also may have curbed its criminal activity.
The region did, however, have eight murders, whereas the East district, which is everything within city limits east of the Elk River and North of the Kanawha River, had two and the South district, which the Charleston area south of the Kanawha River, had one.
The concentration of businesses and cars in other areas of Charleston make it easier for someone to steal property and fund a drug habit, said Lt. Steve Cooper, the department's chief of detectives.
“The addicts are stealing whatever is not nailed down, to use an old cliche,” he said.
Cooper also said West Virginia's crime rates are on par with surrounding states.
According to the most complete and recent FBI data, West Virginia did have similar rates of crime per resident when compared to Virginia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky for the year 2014.
The data also shows Charleston police reported about 14 percent more crime in 2000 than it did in 2014.
“If you look at those numbers, these areas would feel so safe by comparison,” Cooper said.
Still, Charleston is faced with a dangerous problem and its roots may extend beyond West Virginia's borders.
In a 2016 investigation, an FBI informant arranged to have 10 pounds of meth delivered to Charleston from Los Angeles.
The plan was for two women to deliver the drugs by car and for a California man to fly into Huntington and pick up the profits just five days later.
Drugs that make their way to West Virginia burden law enforcement, emergency responders and Charleston's residents.
It's a problem without boundaries, and law enforcement personnel have even found themselves in the middle of West Virginia's epidemic.
Authorities arrested one of their own in 2016 after an on-duty parole officer allegedly bought what he thought to be Oxycodone from a confidential informant.
Police said Christopher Bright, then an employee of the Braxton County Sheriff's Office, had also bought pills and meth in the past. He lost his job shortly after.
Cooper said a positive change is expected with proactive police work and successful prosecutions, along with other factors.
“In my opinion, there needs to be more treatment facilities,” he said.
Reach Giuseppe Sabella at giuseppe.sabella@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5189 or follow @gsabella on Twitter.