Charlotte, North Carolina — The head of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Fraternal Order of Police has asked city leaders to deploy the National Guard to assist CMPD police.
The request was announced on the same day that Charlotte leaders addressed public transit security concerns.
Queen City News Anchor Robin Kanady spoke with the FOP president about why he is making the request.
The National Guard has been deployed to Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Memphis, and the President of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg FOP has written to city leaders requesting that troops be brought to Charlotte.
“The amount of crime and issues that are going on, it is not safe to police our streets with the staffing that we have,” said Dan Redford, president of the local FOP.
Redford claims that CMPD is about 1,200 police officers short of what the federal government recommends for a city the size of Charlotte, and he demonstrated that since 2021, the number of allocated sworn officer positions in CMPD’s budget has decreased by 46 officers, while Charlotte’s population has grown dramatically.
“Is this just an attempt to get attention or do you really think the National Guard should come in here?” Asked Kanady.
“From a crime perspective, I understand that crime is down but the perception from the public is that it’s not, obviously they’re the ones we have to listen to,” says Redford.
Redford’s call for the National Guard comes after the stabbing of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on Charlotte’s light rail drew international attention on August 22. However, Redford says he has been meeting with police and city leadership about CMPD staffing issues for quite some time and believes they haven’t done enough.
“We just don’t feel that the city has aggressively pursued increasing the ranks of CMPD over the past several years,” Redford told the crowd.
Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles believes the National Guard is unnecessary given the local backing to make Charlotte safer.
“What I believe is that given the time that we have to work with the White House and other federal offices, we will not need the Guard to come to Charlotte,” Lyles said at a news conference on Friday.
CMPD declined to comment on the proposal to deploy the National Guard.
