When it comes to crime-fighting, Durham seems to have hit the bull’s eye.
Durham Police Chief Jose Lopez announced Feb. 21 that the city’s crime rate has reached a 10-year low and attributed much of the 31 percent drop to “Operation Bull’s Eye,” a sustained effort to concentrate police resources in a two-square-mile portion of northeast Durham identified as an epicenter of crime. The operation, which began in August 2007, has reduced violent gun crime in the area—the initiative’s primary focus—by 57 percent and drug-related calls to 911 by 38 percent, according to the Durham Police Department’s annual report for 2010.
Even though the city still has a long way to go—Durham had 25 criminal homicides, a 19 percent increase from 2009 to 2010—Lopez said the Bull’s Eye project, which emphasizes collaboration between DPD and the community, is reforming Durham’s image and making the city safer as a whole.
“Crime is contagious and must be contained. It has a lot to do with poverty in the area and general blight,” Lopez said, noting that poor, neglected areas often become hotbeds of crime where citizens have little confidence in the police. “People there don’t think any one cares.”
The area being targeted by Bull’s Eye, a “hot spot” that makes up only 2 percent of the city’s total area, was home to almost 20 percent of Durham’s violent gun crime and “shots fired” calls to 911, as well as one-fifth of arrests for prostitution, possession of stolen goods and drug activity, according DPD analyses.
City Manager Tom Bonfield said because it is hard to measure and quantify criminal trends, Durham officials studied crime data from May 1, 2006 through April 30, 2007 and determined that a concentrated, high-intensity approach was the best way to allocate resources.
The program’s first year was estimated to cost about $225,000 to be paid for using overtime funds and a federal grant. It is unclear what the initiative currently costs DPD, Lopez referred comment to DPD Public Information Officer Kammie Michael, who could not be reached for comment.
Working with the community
City officials said in addition to reducing crime in the identified hot spot, the Bull’s Eye operation is intended to improve citizens’ perceptions of DPD’s ability to protect them.
Like most cities, Durham has neighborhood watch initiatives, but Lopez said many Durhamites—especially those living in the hot spot—choose not to participate in crime prevention. Bull’s Eye works to combat this by employing law-enforcement strategy that depends largely on a motivated community for success, in addition to answering emergency calls.
“Not all the contributing factors to crime are under the city government or DPD’s control,” Bonfield said. “This has to a collaborative effort.”
From its beginning, the program has tried to establish trust in the community. The Bull’s Eye initiative began with a door-to-door circuit of 3,400 addresses in which officers passed out bilingual information packets to hot spot residents in an effort to build confidence and encourage participation, according to a report issued by Steven Chalmers, former DPD chief. Chalmers’ report called for conversations with citizens about their concerns and license checkpoints that would demonstrate a visibly increased police presence.
DPD has also collaborated with many local organizations to reduce residents’ repeated contact with officers. DPD works with churches, school systems and social services to address potential causes of crime, like drug addiction and psychological disorders. Chalmers noted in his report that the Bull’s Eye initiative also collaborates with the Salvation Army and the John Avery Boys and Girls Clubs to provide programs and community events for youths that would keep them off the streets. He added that DPD also partnered with the North Carolina Division of Community Corrections for this initiative to monitor juvenile and adult probationers to prevent crime recurrence.
The program’s first year was considered a success, and the city won a federal grant to help fund its efforts, the Comprehensive Anti-Gang Initiative, to help continue its efforts in the hot spot, Lopez said.
“People talk about how they never even wanted to walk out their doors but now feel much safer than even three or four years ago,” Bonfield said.
In 2010, robberies dropped 7 percent in Durham from 2009, according to the latest annual report. Lopez believes that such seemingly-small statistical reductions will make Durham a more enjoyable living environment for its residents.
“I’m not stupid enough to think I can send my kids out by themselves and breathe easy. But you don’t need to have to fix the problem all the way to realize stuff is getting better,” said Rebecca Wellington, a middle-aged woman who lives in the hot-spot area. “I’m not so scared no more. That’s the straight fact.”
Flexibility going forward
Although she admitted her experience is confined to her personal life, Wellington said many of her neighbors suffer from social and psychological problems. Without help, she said, many of these people—who often come from abusive or financially unstable households—can be drawn to crime.
To address issues like these that can cause crime, Bull’s Eye tries to be a flexible operation that responds to area residents’ needs, Lopez said. This year, DPD created the “crisis intervention training investigator” position, which is charged with evaluating the relationship between crime and residents’ mental illnesses. The current investigator, William Fleeman, has already conducted 300 follow-up sessions with persons identified as possibly having mental illness and children suffering from family-related trauma.
“We are acting as a sort of leader in this field as police departments do not often become so heavily involved with the social aspects of community problems,” Bonfield said.
Although Durham has made strides in reducing crime, Lopez said there is still room for substantial improvement. For example, the 2010 DPD report shows that aggravated assault crimes have increased 9 percent from 2009 to 2010, one-third of which involve domestic violence.
Lopez said he remains hopeful that Durham will continue its general trend of improvement, noting that statistics will fluctuate year to year. He said he hopes residents keep in mind the big picture—the past 10 years—in which Durham’s crime rate has dropped significantly.
“Almost all [cities] try to identify areas of criminal concern, but what is different is that after the first year of some success we did not walk away,” Lopez said. “We didn’t want to make a momentary change. We wanted to make a lasting change.”
A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the 25 homicides in Durham in 2010 represented a 19 percent decrease over the previous year. The figure represents a 19 percent increase. The Chronicle regrets the error.
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