Meet Captain Bryan Crum, head of CMPD’s University Division

Jan 16, 2024 | Safety

Originally from central Illinois, Captain Bryan Crum moved to Charlotte as a young child and graduated from Providence High School. He now leads the University division of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.  

Recently promoted to captain, Bryan has worked at CMPD for 17 years, serving as the lieutenant of the violent crime division. In that role he led several units, including homicide, armed robbery, missing persons, cold case, and victim services. As the violent crime lieutenant, he enhanced cold case investigations, continuing to pursue and obtain sexual assault kit initiative grant funding to ensure that every resource possible is devoted to solving cold cases.  

Here, we talk with Captain Crum about his interest in law enforcement, his biggest challenges, and what he likes to do outside of work. 

How did you initially get interested in working in law enforcement? 

I went to North Carolina State University, where I studied political science, with a concentration in justice systems. I wasn’t sure where my career was going to take me, but since I was interested in the law, I knew political science was in the right general direction. 

When did you decide that police work would be your career path?

In college, we had to complete an internship as part of our coursework. I had a couple of family friends that worked at CMPD, so I spent the summer of my junior year here as an intern in the cold case homicide unit. 

They had just cleared their first case, which was a double murder, and they were between the arrest and court portions of that case, so I got to follow along with the detectives. They also assigned me the task of digging through case files to see what evidence was there. The file room was full of cases going back to the mid 1960s. We were looking for forensic evidence that we could send out for DNA to clear quickly. In the early 2000s, DNA was really taking off, and we were looking to leverage it to solve some older cases. 

In one case, a couple and their young child were murdered at home, and the house was set on fire. Another daughter who was, very fortunately, staying with other family at the time, survived. By chance, she called in to hear the story from detectives. She was in her 30s or 40s by now and had only heard family stories about what happened to her parents and her sister. She wanted to know the real story. I was able to sit with her and the detectives and fill her in on the case. 

The files became people to me, and at that point, I realized how important the work is that we do as cops at the local level. We get to touch individual lives. Whether it’s a murder case or just changing the tire on the side of the road or answering sometimes the most routine calls for service, they’re really big events in people’s lives and we’re able to make a difference. 

Do you have any past ties with University City?

Yes, I’m excited to be here! I lived briefly in University City for a few years, and my sister attended UNC Charlotte. It’s a community that I feel a part of in many ways.

How can people get better connected to help your division? 

When communities are connecting, and then connecting with us, it helps. We have community coordinators that are assigned to each response area, so they get to know the neighborhoods and the people. That’s who you can call when you need help with a problem. 

What’s the biggest challenge about policing in University City?

Being the new guy coming in, I have to rely on my folks who are already plugged in, but to really it’s to understand what the community needs. It’s a huge population with a lot of different communities that have different needs. We would be glad to meet our community at some of our community events, like “Coffee with a Cop,” and we ask that people invite us to their community events.  We are glad to connect with the community anywhere we can.

Outside of work, what do you enjoy doing? 

I’m a board member with the Charlotte Salute to Heroes Foundation. The foundation partners with area businesses and community members to support first responders and military veterans who experience unexpected personal hardships. It started as a hockey game between police and fire departments, and it’s grown from there. We had a baseball game to fundraise after 9/11, and during Covid, we fed the frontlines. We fed every single police, fire, sheriff’s deputy, volunteer firefighter – everybody in the county – to let them know that the community is still thinking about them.

Reach Captain Crum by email at Bryan.Crum@cmpd.org. Find out about CMPD community events, like “Coffee with a Cop” and more through CMPD social media.

0 Comments


Receive Up to Date News


Receive Economic Development News


View Past Newsletters


View Post by Category


Press Releases

Meet our new intern, Haley Chilcott

Haley Chilcott is our new Marketing Communications Intern here at University City Partners. Haley is an undergraduate student at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and is majoring in Communications, with a concentration in Public Relations. After graduation...

University City Partners welcomes our newest board members

  University City Partners welcomes its newest members of the UCP Board of Directors: Charlotte City Manager Marcus Smith and Michael Fung, a regional leader for Wells Fargo's Corporate Properties Group. The University City Partners Board of Directors consists of...

Response to tragic police incident and unrest

Last night our community was at the center of a tragic police incident followed by several hours of demonstration, aggressive agitation and unrest. Our neighborhoods, businesses, retail centers and institutions were impacted with activity that has left us all feeling...

Introducing our UNC Charlotte interns

University City Partners is proud to introduce our "Class of 2016" - our fall semester interns from UNC Charlotte. Seniors Hollis Maye-Keye and Cagney Reeves will help us with communications and planning - key functions for our success. We encourage you to consider...

UCP video report: Planning for our transit-powered future

University City Partners has launched a new feature - a monthly video report on how we are investing time and resources to build University City. Today's report: UCP is leading a planning effort to make the area around the future JW Clay Transit station a more...

Our 2016 Annual Report chronicles a landmark year

The dramatic changes taking place across University City can be hard to keep up with - unless you have the University City Partners annual report. Our brand new 2016 University City Partners Annual Report chronicles these changes over the past year (July 2015-June...

University City Partners welcomes new board members

University City Partners welcomes four new members to its board of directors, including two UNC Charlotte grads. Tracy Dodson with Lincoln Harris, John McAlister with Electrolux, Phil Nicholenko with TIAA and Jane Wu, founder of Carolina States Regional Center, have...

Thanks for taking our survey; we heard you!

Our recent invitation to take a brief survey about University City Partners drew more than 100 participants and many useful responses. ”The survey was like a pulse check to make sure that what we are hearing in our meetings also represents the opinions of all of the...

University City Partners adds planning & development director

Tobe Holmes has joined University City Partners as its planning and development director. Holmes, formerly with Center City Partners, will oversee all UCP planning and development initiatives. At Center City Partners, Holmes managed economic and community development...

Meet our UNC Charlotte interns

One benefit of having UNC Charlotte nearby is the amazing wealth of student interns. We landed three of the best this semester: Meredith Avant (Communications with PR concentration), Miguel Avila (Economics with innovation focus), and Charles Trowell (Architecture...