With Durham's district police commanders standing behind her at a press conference yesterday afternoon, Chief of Police Teresa Chambers announced the city's largest drop in crime since it began keeping computerized crime statistics in 1971.
"[W]e have successfully turned this ship around," Chambers said in her statement.
Index crimes-which include murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, larceny and burglary-decreased 6 percent for the 1998 calendar year.
Violent crime-which in 1997 rose 22 percent-showed the first double digit decrease since 1980 at 13 percent. Violent crime includes rape, murder, robbery and aggravated assault.
Chambers attributed the drop to in-service training and heightened autonomy for district commanders within the department.
In addition, crime analysts now map crimes continuously as they occur, a practice that has helped officers target problem areas, Chambers explained.
But the most significant change, she said, has been in the increased presence of community policing.
"People have a more positive attitude toward policemen in the community," said William Thomas, president of the Albright Community Association, who affirmed that he had witnessed drops in crime in his own neighborhood, especially in drug activity and prostitution.
Capt. Ralph Mack, Southwest Central District commander, noted that Partners Against Crime, a program created to increase interaction between the community and police officers, has seen attendance at monthly meetings triple.
"More people have come to realize that the police can't do it all by themselves," Mack said.
Increases in arrests accompanied the drop, Chambers said. For example, the rate of arrests for violent crimes rose from 14 percent in 1997 to 26 percent the following year.
Durham crime rates still exceed comparable figures in Raleigh and Chapel Hill, Chambers said. This relationship may change, however, as Durham expands its community policing and the police department fine-tunes its data collection.
"I'm happy now just comparing Durham with Durham. Give me more than one successful year under our belt and then we can start comparing numbers with other cities," said Chambers. She took office in January of 1998.
Mayor Nick Tennyson said city officials were pleased but not surprised by the drop.
"People who are surprised are people who may have the wrong picture of Durham in the first place," he said.
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