CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Mecklenburg County leaders heard plans on Tuesday to spend more money in the effort to reduce juvenile crime in Charlotte.
The county's Juvenile Crime Prevention Council is a group tasked with finding programs to help address gaps in youth services. The group made several recommendations to the Board of County Commissioners on which programs they feel are needed to accomplish their goals.
It comes after new data from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police shows that 4 out of every 5 car thefts involve suspects under the age of 18.
The council will allocate more than $2 million on programs that promote prevention, intervention, treatment and aftercare strategies that are geared at strengthening families and creating a safer community. The goal is to reach at-risk kids before they become criminals.
"We arrest them, we return them to their parent," CMPD Deputy Chief Tonya Arrington stand. "Sometimes the parents are like, 'I don't want them here, I can't control them, I need help.'"
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