Dear Mr. Williams: Tam writing to give you notice of information J plan to share during our meeting with downtown business owners later this week regarding the disposition of criminal charges in Buncombe County. According to data compiled by the Administrative Office of Courts (“AOC”), during the past several fiscal years,' the Buncombe County District Attorney’s Office dismissed nearly every charged case involving criminal behavior routinely complained of by downtown businesses and residents: FY 2020-21 Crime Charged # of Cases Disposed® | Dismissed’ | % Dismissed Solicitation/Begging 113 113 100% 2nd Degree Trespassing 768 BS 96% Public Urination 16 16 100% Open Cont. City/Caty. Prop | 41 37 90% Local Ord, —Free Text? 39 36 92% City/Town Violation 9 9 100% \ Other —Free Text B [68 93% BY 2019-20 [ Crime Charged # of Cases Disposed | Dismissed | % Dismissed | Solicitation/Begging 237 237 100% 2nd Degree Trespassing 1,447 1,351 93% Public Urination 16 16 100%, Open Cont, City/Cnty. Prop _| 114 107 94% Local Ord. — Free Text 98 96 98% City/Town Violation 31 31 100% Other — Free Text 32 30 93% This information is fteely available on the AOC’s website 2 Number based on number of cases disposed minus number disposed of by superseding felony indictment during the relevant fiscal year. * Number includes cases listed by AOC as "CR Cases ~ Other” plus cases listed as “CR Dismissal with Leave.” The AOC used to include data on eases dismissed without leave, but moved those eases in to the “Other” category ‘beginning with FY 2017-18. + Officers charging cases based on violations of local ordinances such as camping or sleeping in public may ee categorize those violations as “Local Ordinance ~ Free Text,” "City/Town Violation,” and “Other — FreeFY 2018-19 [ Crime Charged # of Cases Disposed _| Dismissed _| % Dismissed Solicitation/Begging 583 569 98% 2nd Degree Trespassing 2,511 2,331 93% es Public Urination 66 66 100% Open Cont. City/Cnty. Prop _| 268 247 92% Local Ord. — Free Text 203 196 97% City/Town Violation 17 15 88% Other — Free Text 44 4 93% To date, [have received no notice from you, any judge, any attorney employed by your office, or any other judicial officer that APD personnel are making inappropriate arrests, bringing charges with insufficient evidence, or failing to show up for scheduled court appearances. This trend began well before the pandemic, and cannot be written off as a byproduct of COVID. Given that, I can only conclude that your office has made the unilateral decision that these cases are not worthy of prosecution, regardless of the impact of these behaviors on the community or the will of the elected bodies that passed these laws expecting they would be enforced in good faith. ‘Moving forward, I believe it would be beneficial for our respective agencies to meet on a weekly ‘basis to dhsetiss cases dismissed during the preceding week, The last thing I want is to create an additional obligation for your staff or mine, however, given the effort that APD officers and detectives expend on cach and every arrest, it is worth the time, If you would like to discuss this matter prior to my sharing this data at our meeting please let me know. Best Regards David Zack Asheville Chief of Police