What are Charlotte’s safety priorities in 2026?

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — WCNC Charlotte’s Julie Kay sat down with Charlotte City Councilmember Dante Anderson to discuss the newly formed Safety Committee. 

Anderson is the chair of the Safety Committee. The new committee was split from the Housing Committee to focus more time and energy on public safety in Charlotte. 

Anderson discusses topics such as mental health, crime involving teenagers and more. 

KAY: So I want to start with the big news of the new safety committee. Of course, this being separated from the housing committee. Uh, first of all, as the chair of this committee, what does that mean to you and what do you think those priorities will look like?

ANDERSON: This is a big move and I’m really glad that the mayor did this, as you mentioned, safety was with the housing committee, um, but wasn’t really getting as much airtime as it needed.

And given everything that’s going on in our community over the past year and the fact that we are just growing tremendously, we wanna make sure that crime does not grow at the same rate and clip as as our population here and so I am happy to chair this committee. 

We’re gonna focus on safety from a multifaceted perspective, so, uh, so many believe that safety equates to law enforcement. And law enforcement plays a big role.

I’ve met with our new chief of police. I’ve met with our fire chief, our emergency, management deputy chief, as well as the head of Medic here. So, I’ve already met with them over the last week or so, but we know what’s going on in the community and what we’re seeing across the nation. 

Mental health plays a huge role in a lot of the occurrences of crime and we need to make sure that we can address that. 

We also know that our juveniles here are repeat offenders across the board as it relates to property crime and other various types of crime, so we need to lean into juvenile diversion as well. 

So, this committee will be laser focused on ensuring that public safety is paramount in the city.

KAY: I’m really glad you brought up kids in particular teens. That was actually my next question. Over the weekend, we had a double homicide involving teenagers, which is so sad to hear about in general, but how do you go about preventing youth crime? What do those conversations look like with the new police chief or within council?

ANDERSON: Yes, you know, I think the new police chief, based on my conversations with her, she is right on top of it and she understands that this is a pressing issue. 

We have to be honest about the current state here and our young people do not know how to mitigate their disagreements. They don’t know how to disagree and be okay with that. 

So many are in so many situations get escalated with guns and guns are not the solution and so number one, we need to lean into our young people and make sure that they understand the various alternatives to violence to make sure that they can solve their problems and their disagreements in a peaceful way.

The other piece of it is, you know, there are other cities that have been successful in addressing this issue. 

I think of Baltimore in particular with what the mayor has done up there. And I know the mayor of Baltimore, I know what’s been going on in Chicago as well, and Mayor Johnson and Mayor Brandon in Baltimore, we need to look at what they’re doing and the programs that they’re doing specifically in Baltimore. 

Programs directly targeted to young people, specifically young males, and leaning into that population and making sure that they know that they have opportunity out here and I think that’s the most important thing. 

There was a there was a a quote from the mayor of Detroit years ago and he said nothing stops a bullet like a good job, right? So, if we have jobs and opportunity and programs for our young people, they’re going to be excited about that and hopefully we’ll be able to put the guns down and focused on how can they advance their lives.

KAY: I think that really speaks to how multifaceted the issue of safety and security is. I’m curious when this conversation started about separating this committee and making it its own thing. I know the second stabbing on the light rail was an instance that got a lot of public attention, but was this already a conversation prior to that?

ANDERSON: Yes, it was, and you know the mayor was deliberating on doing this and I’m really glad that she did because the reality is now every single month we’re gonna spend a couple of hours talking about public safety in the city and talking about how we can help, yes, our law enforcement officers, our brave officers. 

But, how we can assist some of our partners in the community like our hospital partners here to address mental health issues, to talk about how some of our nonprofit organizations can help lean into this and how our faith-based organizations can help us, in particular with our young people. 

So, there will be a direct focus on public safety in a way that it hasn’t been, at least, through a committee and through a lot of work that multiple council members will be focused on and the other aspect of it if you look at the city’s budget. The lion’s share of our budget goes towards public safety.

Yes, we invest in a variety of different things to enhance the city, but the vast majority of the budget is for public safety. So we need to speak to it. We need to shine a light upon it and focus on it in that way. 60% of the budget is for public safety.

KAY: On that note, I know that you guys are gonna have your retreat in Asheville soon. You’ll discuss all these topics, these priorities, what the budget might look like. Of course, public safety already being the biggest piece of it. I know that this might be a tight budget year for any city across the nation. 

Has that already been a discussion of how are we gonna increase public safety with a budget that’s gonna be a little bit tighter? 

ANDERSON: Yes, and you know our staff, we have an incredible staff. They’re already  thinking about that and working through that to prepare for the retreat, so there will be some really robust discussions about that during our strategy retreat, but the first thing first, public safety is a top priority for the city, right along with housing, right along with jobs and economic development and transportation. 

Public safety is right there. We’re clear on that. 

I hope our residents see that, and then we have to think about how do we invest in public safety through a variety of different ways, you know. 

I mentioned 60% of the budget is already focused on public safety, but with all of the annexation going on around the city and the population growth, we know that we don’t have enough firehouses to address our population growth.

Our new chief of police, she’s doing a fantastic job of leaning into recruitment, but we know that’s an area of focus. We have to attract good officers to come and be a part of our Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department. 

So there’s a variety of different things that we are going to have to invest in from an environmental perspective as well, you know, if you think about some areas uptown for Operation Safe Season. 

We’ve done a lot of really great things to light up College and to light up other areas, but there’s still some dark areas, especially as you leave Uptown traveling south towards South End, so we need to make sure that we’re investing in lighting and that we’re partnering with Duke Energy so that the environment uptown and in other parts of the city really connote the fact that we are a safe city and we also know that when people come Uptown whether it’s from residents who live here or they’re here for an event traveling from the outside of of the city’s area. 

We know it’s kind of like a first date when people visit.

They’re visiting Charlotte and everywhere you go, you go to the Uptown, you go to the downtown area to check them out and see what’s going on. We wanna make sure that everyone knows that our Uptown is safe that our officers are there, but we’re investing there, we have ambassadors there and people can go uptown and have a good time.

I think that’ll be the focus here for Operation Safe Season, and then we’ll start to ripple that out in other parts of the city. We’ll get it right in one specific area and then we’ll start to replicate that. 

So, I’m really looking forward to the work here and very, very happy to chair this committee. I think we’re gonna do some great things as we move into 2026.

KAY: Last thing I can think of off the top of my head is, of course, safety on public transit is a big piece of this conversation. At the same time, the MPTA is officially formed and they’ve had their first meeting. What is that ideal relationship between MPTA and council look like for you? 

ANDERSON: I was there for their swearing in for the very first meeting and man,  we have a great group of folks assembled on that authority and I have a lot of confidence in the chair, David Howard. 

He has a tremendous experience both on the state level as well as the national level focusing on transportation so I know that they will lean into this work with safety being the first priority as well. There’s no reason to build out a public transportation system if no one feels safe enough to ride it, no one feels safe enough to participate in it. 

I know they will be looking at a variety of options as it relates to safety within their own their own authority but also with the connection between council, we know that our appointees through our interview process. We know that they have the same values that we do, right? And, we wanna make sure that our appointees and the entire authority really lives out the values of the city and of the county. We’re in lockstep from a city-county perspective.

This authority will be executing our values locally through this authority and how they’re standing up this multifaceted public transportation network, so I would assume that we are gonna work very closely together. 

As I said, I was present during their meetings. I’m sure they’ll come to some of our meetings and we’ll work collectively to make sure that as we’re building out the system. That safety is foundational, whether you’re at a light rail or on a bus or if you’re doing microtransit. All aspects, all modes have to be safe and residents have to feel like they can participate and not have to worry about anything happening to them.

Contact Julie Kay at juliekay@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.

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