Raleigh Police Chief reflects on city's growing pains, new technology
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Photo illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios. Photo: Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images
Raleigh Police Chief Rico Boyce says his department is finally back to adequate staffing after years of shortages coming out of the pandemic.
- But as the city's population continues to boom, he says the force must keep growing and be given the tools to focus on crime.
Why it matters: Boyce, a 26-year veteran of the Raleigh Police Department, has now been police chief for more than a year. Creating a culture that retains officers and attracts new ones has been a major focus of his.
- RPD's most recent police academy class has 62 people — a number he said points to the department's culture of training and job diversity, the city's attractiveness to young people and increased starting pay.
Driving the news: Boyce recently sat down with Axios to talk about his first year in the job.
- The talk came days after a shooting at Triangle Town Center that left many rattled. Boyce said arrests will be forthcoming soon.
By the numbers: The conversation also followed the release of first-quarter 2026 crime data, showing a 64% year-over-year drop in homicides but slight increases in robberies and assaults.
State of play: Boyce said Raleigh is feeling the growing pains of becoming a major city, and its police force is adapting to that reality.
- When he joined RPD in 2000, the city had about 276,000 residents. Today, it has more than 500,000.
What they're saying: "We are a major city, [and] along with that comes crime, comes more traffic, comes more police calls," Boyce said. "That is a challenge for any police department to experience growth that fast and then also face the social challenges all major cities face."
- A major change, he noted, is that police officers are now responding more to mental health crises in the city, more substance abuse issues and more people experiencing homelessness.
- "Over the years, we've been asked to be mental health professionals," he said. "We're being asked to be substance abuse counselors. We're trying to figure out where can we place folks who are not housed."
Zoom in: He believes the city has done a good job of finding ways to relieve police of certain tasks, like creating the ACORNS unit that helps with residents in crisis, a civilian traffic investigator unit that can help with minor car collisions and a new effort to divert some mental health calls from 911.
- But he wants to see more done to get cops back to focusing more on crime. "We should not be the primary point of contact when someone is unhoused," he said.
What's next: Boyce said he believes increased community engagement will help bring more guns off the street and help put a dent in crimes committed by young people in the city. In recent months, police have taken nearly 500 illegally possessed guns.
- "Adults keep talking around the table about juvenile crime," he said, "but we're not experiencing what our youth are experiencing. We've got to do a better job of connecting with our youth and having conversations with them."
He would also like for RPD to have more technology to fight crime with, something that will require building more trust with the community, he said.
- Specifically, he would like to add drones to the force, something he has seen other large city police departments use in first-responder situations. Though, he acknowledged that many community members are resistant to the idea.
- "The Raleigh Police Department would never violate anyone's Fourth Amendment rights when it comes to surveillance," he said. "I believe [drones are] a tool we need here in Raleigh, and I do believe with our checks and balances and our city's IT department, we're going to have mechanisms in place where we're not violating anybody's rights."