Durham County ends Bull City United anti-gun violence program

Durham County announced late Friday it has ended the Bull City United anti-gun violence program.

The decision, effective immediately, cuts 14 full-time and six contract workers’ jobs.

The program was based on the Cure Violence Model, treating gun violence like a disease and taking a public health approach to reducing it.

Bull City United began in 2016 in response to shootings in Durham, modeled after a similar effort in Chicago.

The program employed former gang members and others involved in the criminal justice system to work as “violence interruptors,” mediating conflicts and trying to prevent retaliatory shootings.

It started out in two census tracts in the Southside and McDougald Terrace areas with seven staff members.

In 2021, after a record 318 people were shot in Durham in 2020, the city expanded the program, adding 18 staff members, bringing the total to 25 working across six census tracts.

In 2022 the county agreed to pay $6 million to buy a vacant building on Pettigrew Street to become Bull City United’s base of operations and house other programs.

But in recent years a handful of its outreach workers have been arrested on drug and other charges, The News & Observer reported. In August the county announced it was reviewing the program.

In a news release at 6:01 p.m. Friday, county officials said the decision to now end Bull City United was made “after careful consideration over time.”

“This decision is rooted in the department’s commitment to continuously evaluate and adapt its efforts to ensure the most impactful and sustainable outcomes,” the release stated.

Bull City United had a nearly $2.6 million budget, including roughly $1 million from the city.

As of Oct. 19, at least 188 people had been shot in the city of Durham this year, the latest police statistics show, 26 of them fatally.

Mayor pro tem disappointed

Mayor Pro Tem Mark-Anthony Middleton told ABC11, The N&O’s media partner, he was disappointed by the decision but that didn’t mean the public health approach to gun violence did not have merit.

“Those worlds ... you may have folks from those worlds who get pulled back in, who get lines blurred sometimes, but that should not accrue to an indictment of the entire concept,” he said.

“In terms of short-term tactical interventions like ShotSpotter, like violence interruption, we’re going to have to have a serious conversation in our city about what we are going to do because this is Durham,” Middleton said. “We’re not going to have stop and frisk, not going to have roving SWAT teams going through Black and brown neighborhoods throwing people against cars.”

“What you have is a viable concept that we know works and has worked around the country,” he told ABC11..

ShotSpotter used audio sensors to alert police to the sound of possible gunfire. The city discontinued it after a trial run after a Duke analysis found it got police to crime scenes faster but did not necessarily reduce shootings.

This story was originally published November 2, 2024 at 9:01 AM.