From Staff Reports

HENDERSONVILLE —  In sharp contrast to Asheville, its neighbor just ot the north and chief rival for tourism and wealthy retirees, Hendersonville has reported a steep decline in violent crime since this time last June, according to the Hendersonville Police Department’s report for June 2023.

However, Hendersonville, long nicknamed “the City of Four Seasons” — and more recently (by so-called “hipsters”) as “Hendo” — “is facing growing traffic safety concerns,” the city’s police chief, Blair Hyhand, also noted in the HPD report.

“We don’t allow crime here in the City of Hendersonville,” Myhand was quoted as saying in a July 14 story by Asheville television station WLOS (News 13). “We’re very thankful that we have a low-crime community. Violent crime is relatively nonexistent here in the city.”

According to the HPD report, larcenies, drug offenses and criminal arrests all trended downward during this June, compared to June 2022.

The report including the following categories and results:

• Larcenies:            June 2023 — 25 vs. June 2022 — 48

• Drug offenses:      June 2023 — 20 vs. June 2022 — 60

• Criminal arrests: June 2023 — 58 vs. June 2022 – 114 

“We have an older population in the city which is not out to lend itself to a lot of violent crime. It’s sort of the demographics of the city that contribute to low crime,” Myhand told News 13.

The TV station’s story then added, “The report is good news as the nation still reels from an increase in violent crime that spiked during the COVID pandemic – the FBI and CDC reported a roughly 30 percent increase in murders between 2019 and 2020, according to Pew Research.”

Myhand told News 13, “The issues we deal with here in the City of Hendersonville are not what they are dealing with in the City of Asheville, Winston-Salem or Charlotte.”

The HPD is not, however, “immune to the same staffing challenge as that of the neighboring Asheville Police Department,” News 13 stated.

To that end, Myhand told the TV station, “Unfortunately, yesterday (July 13) I had an officer tell me he was leaving to go to another agency here soon,” Myhand said. “I’ve got another one looking to go to highway patrol. It is a moving target.”

According to the June report, the HPD has at least four of its 47 sworn officer positions open.

“To lose, even having four vacancies, is nearly 10 percent of my agency,” Myhand told News 13. “We really have to watch that because we have people on maternity leave, sick leave or vacation.”

As for the current focus of the HPD, the chief said that “traffic safety continues to be the biggest hurdle for the department, as motor vehicle crashes trend upward for the city of just more than 15,000,” News 13 noted.

To that end, the HPD’s latest report also include the following categories and results:

• Total stops: June 2023 — 224 vs. June 2022 — 203

• Citations issued: June 2023 — 175 vs. June 2022 — 144

• DWI arrests: June 2023 — 4 vs. June 2022 — 4

• Motor vehicle crashes: June 2023 — 131 vs. June 2022 — 113

“We’re really working to drive those (traffic safety) numbers down and have some plans to increase efforts in that regard,” the chief told News 13.