Durham’s police chief delivers crime report amid drop in violence
In her final crime report to the City Council, Durham Police Chief Patrice Andrews cited successes she said show the city beginning to turn the corner on crime.
Reflecting on progress during her tenure, including on homicide clearance rates and staffing levels, Andrews said Thursday that the Police Department has begun seeing the “slow progress” of reform.
“I told staff a year or so ago that it’s probably going to be two to three years before you’ll start to feel the difference,” she told the council. “It’s a slow process, but we’re getting there.”
Despite several deadly shootings over the past week, new data shared at the meeting show in 2025 violent crime dropped 16.9% compared to the previous year.
The contrast between recent headlines and year-end statistics was a focal point at the City Council meeting. The past week’s seven shootings, including three fatal shootings, were not included in the report, which only covered January to December 2025.
The meeting also came just weeks after the council rejected Andrews’ request to contract with Peregrine Technologies Inc. on a Real-Time Data Center she said would help solve crimes faster and help the department deal with staffing challenges. Critics, and members of the City Council, were skeptical of the partnership, citing uncertainty over how the data would be used and its impact on immigrants and racial profiling.
Still, the annual crime report showed a high homicide clearance rate of 89.7% last year, significantly above the 2024 FBI national average of 62%. Not every case is cleared by arrest. Andrews explained that cases are “exceptionally cleared” when a suspect has been identified, but circumstances, like death or refusing to cooperate as a witness, prevent the department from making an arrest.
For violent crimes, 87.5% of cases were cleared by arrest and 12.5% were exceptionally cleared. About 98% of property crimes were cleared by arrest, while only 2.2% were exceptionally cleared.
“I appreciate, again, the work you all have done,” said Mayor Leo Williams, who had supported the chief’s request for the data center. “But I cannot help but think about where these numbers would be if you had the extra resources you asked for. That’s not on you all, that’s on us.”
The 2025 Data: Aggravated assaults and gun violence
The report showed a 21.5% drop in reported aggravated assaults and a 10.2% decrease in reported rapes year over year. Reported homicides remained flat at 39, the same as 2024.
“Fifty-seven percent of the aggravated assaults involved firearms, so that’s about 113 or so gunshot wounds,” Andrews said, adding that there were 26% fewer shootings last year tied to aggravated assaults.
The chief also pointed to a major investigative success in the December indictment of Kenneth Nathaniel McNeil, 61, on nine counts of statutory rape and other charges involving crimes spanning 26 years.
“No matter when it happened, please report it,” she said. “There’s always a likelihood, there’s always a chance that we can bring the offender to justice.”
Last year, there were 831 guns seized, which is down 15% from previous years. Williams asked if the Police Department knows where the guns coming into the community are from. The department uses the National Incident Ballistic Network to track guns.
“There are times where we recover stolen guns,” Andrews said. “So we know that that car, that gun was stolen and where it was stolen from. Most of these guns are going to be stolen firearms.”
Property crimes continue to make up a majority of all reported offenses, 87%, in Durham, the report also shows. However, those crimes declined by 3.8% in 2025.
‘Our community needs love’
A significant portion of the report broke down juvenile offenses, including a spree of car-related crimes in December.
Police recorded 595 juvenile offenses in 2025. Of that, 171 offenses were allegedly committed by 17-year-olds. One was allegedly committed by a 10-year-old.
Andrews said that the city’s youth were “definitely more involved [in crimes] than they have been over the last few years.”
The most common juvenile offense was larceny, with a total of 195 cases. For violent crimes, there were four homicides, eight robberies, and 13 aggravated assaults committed by juveniles
The report also shows that in a single incident in November at McDougald Terrace, police arrested three juveniles ages 15 and 16 and recovered three firearms. One of them was a stolen handgun.
Many have been outspoken about the connection between Durham’s youth and violence, calling for more intervention.
Donald Hughes, a resident and community advocate, told the City Council that the crime report didn’t go far enough.
“We have to disaggregate this data. Where’s the data down to the ZIP code level? Where’s the racial data that shows exactly where the crime is happening and who is being impacted by the crime?” he said. “The solutions have to be targeted just like the data shows.”
Hughes also directly told Williams there needs to be less “finger-wagging” at parents and community members trying to fight gun violence.
He also questioned if the $1 million in funds for the organizations in Williams’ Bull City Future Fund was being distributed. Last summer, the mayor partnered with the United Way Greater Triangle to launch the fund to help nonprofits that work with youth.
“Mr. Mayor, you said that we can’t social work our way out of this crisis. You said that we can’t restorative justice our way out of this crisis, but I disagree with you. That’s exactly what we need to do,” he said. “Our community needs resources and not rhetoric ... our community needs love and not lecture.”
Andrews said the crime report’s shooting data did not name specific communities where shootings were reported.
“What we want to be very careful of is creating a situation where any one community becomes almost targeted, as far as for bias,” she said. “Is this an overly dangerous community? Is this community more Black and Brown people, and does that equal dangerous?”
Instead, a graph in the report shows dots in areas around the city, like in East Durham, where the shootings were reported.
‘Giant shoes to fill’
The department continues to struggle finding and keeping officers. The 2025 report showed the department has 397 sworn officers and 134 vacancies, a 23.9% rate.
The report also shows terminations rose to 18 in 2025, up from eight in 2024 and 11 in 2023, though it did not say why officers were fired.
During the presentation, council members praised Andrews’ leadership and the culture she has nurtured within the department.
Andrews, 52, began her law enforcement career in 1997 in Durham and became the city’s second Black woman police chief when she returned to the department in 2021. She will retire in May.
Councilman Nate Baker said he appreciated Andrews’ willingness to always “sit down with me and community members who have questions.”
“I think you leave giant shoes to fill,” he said. “If I had critical things to say, I would say them. But I really do think that we are going to be losing someone that has been really, really fundamental in building a healthy culture in the police department, because the chief is vital to that.”