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by WILL FOLKS
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The city of Greenville, South Carolina’s police department (GPD) is responding to reports of escalating lawlessness in its downtown area – claiming it is not indicative of a “larger trend” in the city limits.
According to our recent coverage, local business owners and community activists are expressing concern about rising levels of violence in Greenville’s city center – including numerous street fights and assaults captured on video (and then spread via social media). Police have been slow to respond to the outbreak, these citizens contend, just as city leaders have allegedly failed to address an “epidemic” of homelessness in the area.
On Friday afternoon (August 22, 2025), Greenville’s top cop issued a statement addressing his agency’s views on the matter.
“The recent fights and a burglary at a downtown business – each of which occurred in the early morning hours in the past two weeks – do not reflect a larger trend in Greenville,” city police chief Howie Thompson said in the statement.
According to Thompson, crime data published by his agency would seem to indicate things are moving in the right direction when it comes to “crime trends” in South Carolina’s sixth-largest municipality.
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“Overall crime in our city is down 16% compared to this time last year, and property crime has decreased by 18%,” Thompson said. “Data demonstrates that crime in the city of Greenville is at a 10-year low.”
Thompson’s chart did not include any provisional numbers for 2025. It also conveniently neglected to mention that three of the highest crime years over the past decade (2020, 2023 and 2021) have occurred within the last five years (i.e. under his watch).
While touting his department’s overall record, Thompson made it clear addressing the recent rash of downtown lawlessness will be a top priority moving forward.
“We take these incidents seriously and have implemented additional measures over the past two weeks, including an increased presence of both uniformed and plainclothes officers,” Thompson said. “This weekend, residents and visitors will continue to see an increased police presence downtown.”
“Our commitment is clear: we will do everything necessary to ensure our city, including downtown, remains safe for everyone,” Thompson added.
While debates over lawlessness and homelessness will no doubt continue, Thompson’s agency is to be commended for publicly addressing the matter and vowing to do what is required to crack down on lawbreakers. Now it is up to the citizens of Greenville – and its elected leaders – to hold city leaders and the entire criminal justice system (not just police) accountable for delivering results.
Count on FITSNews to continue tracking this issue as it unfolds…
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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2 comments
Simply look at the current makeup of Greenville City Council. Left leaning liberals. This type of thing has been going on for a long time in the downtown area but the city has been able to keep it out of the press. Thanks to social media the public actually sees what is happening. Sexual assaults in parking garages, shootings, roving gangs downtown happening all the time yet the media is nowhere to be found. But hey we have road diets, bike friendly roads, DEI and lgbtq liaisons.
Send in the army. It’s time to get war torn Greenville under control. Their city is burning!