FAIRMONT BJA GRANT PROPOSAL

Addressing Violent and Property Crime in Fairmont, North Carolina with a Multi-Tiered Community Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative (CVIPI)

Project Abstract

The proposed CVIPI initiative is focused on an underserved, racially diverse, rural community experiencing high rates of violence and the individuals in that rural area most at risk for perpetrating or being victimized by violence. The Town of Fairmont Police Department, located in Fairmont, North Carolina (population 2,189 in 2023) is a law enforcement agency in Robeson County, North Carolina. By the mid-1950's, Fairmont was considered one of the major tobacco markets in the world. As health concerns impacted the sales of tobacco, many local farmers went out of business, increasing unemployment and poverty. Today, Fairmont NC has a poverty rate of 33.4% with the median home value of $88,500. The town is diverse, with 58% of residents African American, 26% White, and 13% Lumbee Indian. The Fairmont violent crime rate of 11.57 per 1,000 residents in 2020 is six times the US rate of 1.95 and triple the NC rate of 3.82. The Fairmont property crime rate of 33.91 per 1,000 residents in 2020 was far above the NC rate (20.82) and 3 times the US rate of 10.39.

We propose to have the Fairmont P.D. engage in intensive Community Violence Intervention (CVI). Our goals for the proposed project are: 1) create victim services with the North Carolina Youth Violence Prevention Center (NC-YVPC; www.nc-yvpc.org) to assist Fairmont victims of crime with mental health services; 2) use Community-Oriented Policing and Violence Interrupters to assist with de-escalation of conflict: 3) implement positive youth engagement activities and diversion programming to keep youth out of the juvenile justice system; 4) work with NC-YVPC on crime/gang prevention program design, implementation, and assessment; and 5) explore Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles in the revitalization of Fairmont’s downtown area. In revitalizing Fairmont’s downtown, we will create an innovative reentry program that links prior offenders to jobs in construction. Grant resources will be used to allow officers to cover short staffing, special assignments, community service events, to address hotspots with high criminal activities, investigations, and saturated patrols. We will create new CVIPI programming with mentoring from NC-YVPC. We will track Uniform Crime Reports of violent and property crimes in Fairmont and compare them to Robeson County, NC, North Carolina, and the United States rates to demonstrate effectiveness.