Durham's homicide rate reached a four-year low in 2006, city officials announced this month.
The city has reported a total of 14 homicides for 2006 and five additional killings, which were declared to be in self-defense and not included in the total annual homicide count. In 2005, 35 homicides were recorded in Durham.
At the beginning of 2006, Durham Mayor Bill Bell stressed that the city needed to focus on homicides, outlining illegal guns, drugs and economics as issues affecting the homicide rate.
Durham Deputy Police Chief Ron Hodge said some people in the community have attributed the lower homicide rate to community outreach programs that focus on teaching youth better dispute-settlement methods.
He added, however, that the trend couldn't be attributed to one source.
"Murder rate is difficult to project or control, especially because most of the time there was some sort of prior relationship between the victim and the assailant," he said.
Bell said that the efforts of schools, civic organizations and the police department in Durham helped to reduce the homicide rate.
Despite the positive results, Hodge said the low homicide rates of 2006 could not be interpreted as the start of a long-term trend.
"I would like to see the homicide rate stay low or go down to zero, but if you are going to make projections based on the past, I can't see that happening," Hodge said.
Bell also said homicide rates were too tough to predict.
Hodge added that the overall violent crime rate-which includes rape, robbery, aggravated assault and homicide-is at a five-year high, and that increases and decreases in homicides have very little effect on the overall crime rate.
Senior Ifeoma Aguanunu said the low homicide rate did not make her feel any safer in Durham.
"I've heard of a lot of break-ins and violent crimes in Durham, even on campus, especially Central Campus," she said. "Homicides may be down, but I don't know about overall crimes."
Hodge cautioned against using a high or low crime rate to determine whether or not a city is safe and whether the police department is doing a good job without taking all the outside factors into account.
"Oftentimes it is a person's lifestyle that makes them a victim or a person who goes out and commits a violent crime," Hodge said.
Bell said he hopes that violent crimes as a whole can be reduced in the years to come.
"I feel that the community effort on homicides paid off, and if we form efforts to bring down other violent crimes we can be successful," Bell said. "We need to have a plan that people can throw their support behind-that they understand and can get involved in."
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