LUMBERTON — Robeson County led in violent crime and had the third highest overall crime rate in the state, according to the latest statistics from the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation.

Robeson County had the highest violent crime rate in the state with a rate of 1,190 per 100,000 people in 2020, according to an annual report released in October by the SBI. Violent crimes include murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault. The rate is an increase of about 35% when compared to the 767.6 rate reported in 2019.

Robeson County was followed by Lenoir County which reported a violent crime rate of 1,171 per 100,000; Edgecombe with 1,118.4; Beaufort with 1,040.3; Cumberland with 948.9 and Scotland with 906.5.

Missing data on the report from 2019 does not allow for an accurate comparison among all counties, however other counties listed surpassed Robeson County’s rates in property, violent and overall crime, according to data provided. The county was No. 1 in the state from 2014 through 2017 in property and overall crime rates per 100,000 people, according to annual reports by the SBI. The county also led the state in 2014, 2015, 2017 in violent crime rates and was No. 2 in 2016.

Robeson County was ranked third in the state for the highest crime rate per 100,000 with a rate of 4,779, which is a 25% increase from the previous year. Leading in overall crime rates in 2020 was Lenoir with 7,169.8 and Forsyth with 4,785.6. Robeson County’s rate was followed by Durham (4,595), Beaufort (4,545), Cherokee (4,318) and Cumberland (4,208.5).

Robeson had the fifth highest property crime rate in 2020 with 3,588.7 per 100,000, according to the report. The rate reflects about a 17% increase from the 2019 rate.

Leading in property crime rates were Lenoir with 5,998.8 per 100,000; Forsyth, 3,873.1; Richmond, 3,779.7; and Durham, 3,769.3. Trailing Robeson County’s rate was Beaufort (3,504.7), Cumberland (3,2596) and Swain (3,238.6).

The Robeson County Sheriff’s Office has taken action to improve reporting, according to Robeson County Sheriff Burnis Wilkins.

Deputies submit all reports through a computer system, he said.

“As to reporting, we adjusted in 2019 and took a more aggressive approach in reporting for transparency reasons which thereby is giving you the real numbers which includes assaults reported etc. Most agencies will simply tell the complainant to get a warrant but we document the majority of ours even when not necessary,” Wilkins added.

The Sheriff’s Office has added more “sworn federal task force agents” and conducted more arrests with the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, he said.

“We will continue our partnership with the federal agencies and continue our aggressive efforts on combatting crime. Gun permit applications went up in 2020 and denials increased as well. We continue to respond to over 4,700 calls for service a month and are in need of more manpower due to call volume, increased crime, overdose deaths and the impact of crime regarding the raise the age law and criminal crimes being committed by juveniles and the fact we can’t hold them in most cases,” Wilkins said.

Wilkins said the increase was expected “due to our increased transparency and COVID which had an impact nationwide.”

The sheriff said there were about 26 murders in 2021 and more than 20 murders in 2020. Some of the murders this year have been determined as acts of self defense, he said.

“Drugs continue to be the driving force behind most of our crime and obviously overdose deaths,” the sheriff said.

There were 51 overdose deaths in 2020. As of Monday, there were 65 overdose deaths in the county, which did not include cases within jurisdiction of local law enforcement agencies, he said.

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, “In 2020, there were 538,203 violent-crime incidents, and 640,836 offenses reported in the United States by 9,991 law enforcement agencies that submitted National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) data, and covers 53% of the total population.”

The previous year contained 448,783 violent crime incidents with 520,209 offenses reported by 9,042 agencies, according to the FBI.

“The rate per 100,000 people of Crime Index offenses reported to law enforcement agencies throughout North Carolina decreased 4.5% during 2020 when compared to the figures reported in 2019,” according to the SBI.

The violent crime rate increased 11% across the state and the property crime rate decreased 7%, according to the report. The murder rate rose by 23%, and the aggravated assault by 19.6%.

Decreases were seen across the state in rates of reported rapes (13.3%), robberies (10.4%), burglaries (9.2%), and larcenies or thefts (7.7%) in 2020, according to the data.