HIGH POINT, N.C. (WGHP) — High Point police are sounding the alarm on a disturbing rise in juvenile crime.
FOX8 sat down with Major Matt Truitt, the assistant chief for the High Point Police Department. He shared that high-impact crime is up among kids ages 10-17 around 51.6%.
“That number is staggering and it’s concerning for us here as law enforcement, it does go all over the place, but it is increasing at the moment,” said Truitt.
Major Truitt says kids 10-17 are the driving force behind crime in High Point right now.
Among high-impact crimes, burglaries more than doubled from 16 in 2022 to 33 so far this year. Larceny from a motor vehicle also jumped from 19 last year to 42 so far. Murder, rape and aggravated assault also fall into the high-impact crime category and have all decreased.
“They are still committing some pretty high-power crimes they’re taking people’s lives, and it comes back to drugs and guns,” said Truitt.
Crimes involving weapons and drugs are up the most. From 2020 to this year, they rose 97.1% among the 10-17 age group.
“When you look at what these young folks are carrying, we’re talking pistols with extended magazines, we’re talking 50 to 100 rounds at a time,” said Truitt.
High Point Police Chief Travis Stroud called the increase disturbing at a roundtable Thursday morning with Congresswoman Kathy Manning and other community stakeholders in High Point.
He’s still searching for the reason kids turn to violence.
“I think there’s a lot of exposure to it, I think it’s become very commonplace in some of the neighborhoods, replicating what we see and that’s what we’ve fallen into,” said Stroud. “A lot of [violence] is glorified through various facets whether that be social media or what they see every day.”
Community advocates believe everyone can help. They emphasize people should get involved in local programs connecting with kids in schools to give them positive mentors.
