After shootings hit new high, Durham to spend $935,000 on an alternative to police

This story was updated Jan. 21, 2021, to clarify Council member Mark-Anthony Middleton’s position on police staffing.

Residents of four more Durham neighborhoods may see new teams of “violence interrupters” on the street some time this year.

After a record 318 people were shot in the Bull City last year, the Durham City Council agreed to spend $935,488 to hire more staff for the county’s violence interruption and outreach team, Bull City United.

City leaders voted Monday night to expand the group to four new areas with high gun-related crime.

“I would love to see Bull City United teams working in every neighborhood, all over the city,” Mayor Pro Temp Jillian Johnson said. “There’s a lot of opportunity for this kind of mediation and conflict resolution.”

A total of 318 people were shot in Durham last year compared to 189 people in 2019, according to Durham Police Department data.

Since 2017, Bull City United staff members have worked in part of the Southside community and an area encompassing the McDougald Terrace public housing community.

Those two areas have seen a 1.78% decrease in gun-related crimes since 2013, compared to a citywide increase of 16.49% over the same time period, according to data presented to the City Council on Jan. 7.

The group follows the Cure Violence model, which treats violence like a learned behavior that spreads across a community like a disease.

Staff members go where shootings take place, talk to people involved in the conflict, and try to negotiate peace. Most team members, such as current supervisor David Johnson, have been convicted of past crimes or were once incarcerated.

With the new funding, the city will partner with Durham County and hire two more supervisors, eight “violence interrupters” and eight “outreach workers.”

That will bring teams to Oxford Manor and the Braggtown community in northern Durham, the Cornwallis Road public housing complex, the Golden Belt district just east of downtown, and an area just south of downtown.

The City Council did not discuss a timeline for when the new staff will be hired or hit the streets.

‘A clear and present danger’

Council member Mark-Anthony Middleton said it is the City Council’s responsibility to protect residents from gunfire.

“It is a clear and present danger. It is imminent. It affects all populations, all demographics of our city,” said Middleton, who has unsuccessfully pushed for trying gunshot surveillance technology.

“Black, brown, white, straight, gay, rich, poor, everybody is subject to this scourge upon our city,” he said.

In 2019, Middleton, Mayor Steve Schewel and Council member DeDreana Freeman had voted for the city to hire more police officers, but a majority of the council rejected the police chief’s request.

Irving Joyner, a criminal law and procedure professor at N.C. Central University, thinks the Cure Violence model makes sense for Durham.

“I think it’s a big departure from the law enforcement model or the policing model that is typically repressive, and offers a better opportunity for relief,” said Joyner, who’s lived in Durham for over 40 years.

“What is happening now does not work,” he added. “And at this point, given the scope of the danger that exists, you need to try different things.”

While Council member Freeman supports Bull City United, she urged her colleagues to avoid treating the Cure Violence model as a “single bullet” solution to gun violence.

The city should also support Council member Pierce Freelon’s We Are The Ones Fund, she said, which would funnel $750,000 to grass-roots nonprofits and mutual aid networks.

“It’s important to note that the Cure Violence model still leaves the county as the kind of manager of this program,” Freeman said. “And that is uncomfortable, acknowledging that there should be something more on the community side.”

Although council members have been enthusiastic about funding Bull City United since October, some community leaders in the group’s target areas have questioned its effectiveness.

Ashley Canady, resident council president of McDougald Terrace, told The N&O in September that she had rarely seen the group in the last three years.

Big expense during budget challenge

The mayor and the six City Council members all supported expanding Bull City United, but Schewel diverged from his colleagues over how much the city should spend.

The city manager’s office had previously suggested Durham expand to two areas at the cost of $363,332, rather than pay $935,000 to grow to four.

Schewel backed the lesser amount.

“We are all often in situations where we vote for out-of-budget expenses. Things come to us and we do that. This is a big one,” he said. “This is a giant chunk, and I’m uncomfortable with that given our budgetary situation.”

He proposed asking the Durham County Board of Commissioners to split the cost for additional expansion later on.

Johnson, however, doubted whether the City Council could negotiate a deal with county leaders quickly enough.

“It’s already taken us, I think, a pretty long time to get here, to this point where we’re ready to move significant resources into the program,” she said.

Durham could do a “phased roll-out,” she said, spreading the expense before and after the city’s next fiscal cycle in the summer.

This story was originally published January 20, 2021 at 3:06 PM.