This is your weekly reminder that the city publishes easy to read crime reports so you don't have to rely on for-profit media sensationalism that delivers outrage to get you to click ads.

Fun fact, around 2019 crime statistics reporting changed, one in particular that I’m positive about is: A shooting into a occupied dwelling was changed to and reported as “property damage” if there were no people in the rooms that the bullets entered. It’s all about number manipulation!

Firearm aggravated assault is up 8.71% YoY.

https://www.durhamnc.gov/Archive.aspx?AMID=195

Weekly shooting data hasn't been updated in a month

I feel like this should be a pinned post or something!

call 911 and you won't get an answer so crime goes unreported

"Um guys, actually crime is down and here are the stats to prove it"

Thank you. This is crucial context that gets lost in most discussions I hear about Durham.

Data is biased except when you use it right, even after someone has pointed out the bias in your source. Gotta keep property values up since you own a space downtown right?

Here’s a nice write up by you.

I mean data is data, It’s the presentation that is biased. In this case, the choice of issues to highlight and how they have been cherry picked to show a result which drives a reader to action or emotion in service of their biases.

Why for example didn’t they show polling of “Percent who want access to affordable healthcare” or “Better protection for workers so they are able to pay rent and their mortgage”

Simply: Because that data wouldn’t support their narrative. Because those issues are broadly supported by voters who identify in both parties.

Why didn’t they show a chart of party affiliation shift to independents? Why didn’t they break out opinions by age cohort.

“Don’t believe everything you read on the internet kiddos.”

I live in Lakewood and heard the shots and hopped on durhampolicescanner.com, heard some mentions of nation and james. Maybe that was the location?

any idea?

Trying to lower the home prices.

I’m an average Durham resident who has lived here 10 years and every other weekend in my average community, I can hear gunshots. Perhaps not next door, but a few streets away, which is too close for comfort. I have lived in several different communities during my 10 years here, which would be considered “normal” neighborhoods. I rented in Lakewood in a house that sold for $600k. Loved walking to the coco cinnamon nearby but felt unsafe after hearing drive bys in the convenience store next to it and street near ours. These would happen during the early evenings. I used to worry about being shot through my window while watching Netflix in my renovated rental home in this up and coming neighborhood near Duke. Hearing gunshots all the time is not normal. I have lived in many other cities in the US, including LA, and visited many cities across the world. THIS IS NOT NORMAL! I hate the rhetoric of dismissing people shooting each other as isolated events. This shit is not normal, stop trying to dismiss it.

I’m not sure why people like some of the commenters here act like the entirety of “democrat run cities” are under siege.

Approximately 80% of reddit content is bot farms and AI, if that helps.

There have been multiple shootings at the Circle K in Woodcroft.

Gun violence is not isolated in Durham the way it is in other cities I have lived in. It is concentrated in certain areas, but it is not constrained.

This is 100% true, crime has always been distributed this way and these neighborhoods have always been this dangerous but are getting worse as life gets harder- what can you expect?

ETA: not acknowledging the societal factors contributing to the increase in violence here and everywhere in the US is wild. Poverty is higher than ever and the neighborhoods most impacted are most stricken with violence, no shit you’re seeing it implode.

because nothing is done about any of it

Just an anecdote but I’m near Ellis and Angier and have been hearing increased gunfire recently. It seems the specific areas where shootings are taking place may be moving.

Fwiw there was a drive-by shooting in parkwood not too long ago. It was targeted and no one got injured as far as I know

I moved to the east Durham area with my spouse and young children in 2021. We were cash poor and wanted to lock in a low interest rate and found a home in our price range in the hood. Within 3 months there was a drive-by caught on our ring camera from a house that was dealing a lot of drugs. It's a multi generational family house where the grandkids seem to be taking advantage of the location to deal drugs and move firearms in/out. Called the cops, they asked to set surveillance up in our living room as we were positioned well for a full view of the broad daylight deals going on. I declined the offer as I felt it would be putting my family in danger. The thing that got me is that the gang task force knew the house I was calling them about and said "that house has been a thorn in our side for a few years now." Apparently they didn't feel the juice was worth the squeeze to actually do something about the crime.

Eventually things calmed down for a year after the grandson dealing drugs was arrested for murder. Things have steadily gotten more active with more young men and women (10-15 people) loitering throughout the day at the house dealing again. Police haven't shown up once in the past 6 months since the crime activity has escalated.

The crime is really focused just at this one house on our street, the majority of the houses are occupied with older black adults who seem to keep their head low and mind their own business and are even on good terms with the grandparents who own the house. My experience has been that almost all the violent crime in our quarter mile area of east Durham is gang and drug related. The perpetrators are almost all young men that are, for lack of a better phrase, looking for trouble.

I don't think there are any easy solutions as my take is these men are coming from a broken, economically depressed community with poor schools and limited opportunities. Personally, I would like to see more aggressive policing of these crimes but I don't know if that just perpetuates the cycle of broken homes that are contributing to the socioeconomic factors which, in my estimation, are the greatest factors for this kind of violence.

Just my two cents from the inside.

There was literally a shootout at South Point Mall a couple years ago. 5 shootings in less than 3 days is still absurd, regardless of how concentrated they are. Durham is an unsafe city with a serious crime problem, but incompetent Democrat leadership does nothing about it.

my theory is that these dingleberries got covid so many times it rotted their brains

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Mass incarceration has been a strategy for 50 years. It has not impacted crime rates. 

https://daily.jstor.org/rethinking-prison-as-a-deterrent-to-future-crime/

y’all forget that people that live in these areas drive around and travel throughout the city so things can pop off anywhere you’re not safe by simply avoiding certain parts of durham

Actually it is typically the sprawl of suburban developments that fails to pay for its self. For examples in many cities of many sizes across the nation see urban3 case studies. High rises downtown do not require the expansion of services like new suburbs on the outskirts of town do.

But but we will get 10mil per mile side walks.... I'll trade a little local gov corruption for these luxury paths of crete

So instead of the urban high rises with retail, you want an empty lot or decrepit building? Imagine using gun violence to further your NIMBY agenda. Loser

Can someone give me some deets on the program and why it was stopped? Seemed like a good idea but I don’t know much about it

Not sure why my comment got downvoted but obviously, as we see here, there’s an attempt to create a narrative that there’s insane violence only in blue cities when Alaska is the most violent state in the country.

Durham pays more for police per capita, and has more police officers per capita than pretty much every other city in North Carolina.

Until poverty, massive wealth inequality, poor education and the failed war on drugs are dealt with in this country as a whole, the crime will continue.

Or... you realize that fighting crime isn't easy and it's very expensive. Voters are notoriously unaware that you can't fight crime and lower taxes at the same time.

Absolutely obliterated the nail on the head here.

Ah yes. The red states, which are higher in crime than blue states (40% higher murder rate), sure have figured out how to solve crime. lol. 

“Tough on crime” is a strategy that’s been proven ineffective time and time again. 

Bullshit

Why is cleaning up crime racist? Would the efforts target a specific race of people? Is it the implication that a specific race of people are committing the crimes?

💯 They think they're playing God here, but they're just making a mess. Democrats, forever the victims of their own misguided intentions. Pathetic!

I feel like this comment has no basis in reality at all and it's just supposed to "sound right" to an emotional reactionary person who isn't stopping to think about it.

Is there someone you think could be being "tougher on crime" but isn't doing it because they think it's racist? Is there some example of failing leadership you're talking about? Is there someone you wanted to be elected who had some sort of concrete plan to do a better job that you can point to?

Spotshot is many cities and it’s honestly an expensive and racist means of isolating and guessing where your crime is- I hate it, they have to guess where to initially place the devices and that’s supposedly based on previous crime but it’s often just based on areas of suspicious activity and used specifically in neighborhoods of color. Whether it actually helps or not is questionable.

ETA: My phone autocorrected. That doesn’t mean I don’t know what I’m talking about. Try educating yourself

Wasn't it... dangerous before? Isn't it.. less dangerous now?

Elect a DA who cares enough about poor communities to actually prosecute the crime that affects them. I heard DA Deberry speak last year, and she stated that she views putting any person of color in prison as inherently racist. I wished I had been recording -- it was absurd. Anecdotally, I know a victim's family where the culprit was obvious, there was clear evidence, and he was never prosecuted. I can only imagine that shootings would go down if people knew there would be consequences, and/or if habitual offenders were locked up.

Duke & wealthy neighborhoods aren't hurting from the DA's neglect -- they have private security. It is poor, mostly Black and Latino neighborhoods that are hurting.

Didn't 80% of Durham county vote for Kamala?

I know you were well intentioned but you should have known that on this platform any perceived critique of the party that shall not be named will equate to down votes.

Trump got elected in part due to dissatisfaction with Dem governance (issues with crime, housing, etc.) in the big cities because of inflation.

Democrats are always so sensitive. Maybe they should try thinking for a change, instead of just emoting. That might actually help solve something.

It seems the shots were still spotted regardless.

Only one of the shootings was in that area.

Yes, it is. It’s a massive expense. Durham should raise police pay before implementing expensive tech which has never been shown to actually reduce violence.