Durham has a gang problem. Here's what the city could do about it.

Feb. 22--DURHAM -- The Durham City Council, which rejected hiring more police officers in a split vote last year, could be ready to hire more now.

On Thursday the council told City Manager Tom Bonfield to draft a proposal for adding six positions in the Police Department.

Police Chief C.J. Davis transferred six patrol positions to the department's gang unit in December, making up the lost patrol staffing with other officers working supplemental shifts, usually for overtime pay. The funding for the new positions would keep the six extra officers in the gang unit and restore the patrol staffing.

Davis, who ideally wants 13 more officers to create a second gang unit, made a staffing presentation at a Feb. 6 council session, but three of the seven council members missed it.

After Davis spoke again Thursday, Mayor Steve Schewel asked council members which option they wanted on their March 2 meeting agenda: hiring six officers or continuing the supplemental shifts. Schewel said he supported hiring more officers, and the council agreed to put that option on the agenda.

The six officers would cost $419,430 a year, slightly more than supplemental shifts, but about half of what 13 officers would cost. That option could come back during budget talks this spring.

12% of shootings

In all, 189 people were shot in Durham in 2019, including 32 who were killed, in 652 reported shooting incidents..

In at least 12% of the reported 652 shooting incidents a gang member was either a victim or a suspect, Davis said.

The gang unit often operates at half capacity because of approved absences. Before the transfer of six patrol positions, it had 13 positions. The extra officers have helped the unit respond rapidly and stabilize shooting situations but put a strain on patrol, which is relying on volunteers working overtime to fill the gap.

Davis, who became chief in 2016. said she made the move after a year of brazen acts of violence.

"In my tenure here, last year was probably the most challenging time I have had," she told the council. "I am sure you monitored the watch reports to see one shooting after the next, after the next. And we came to the conclusion that most of that activity was just (personal) beefs and gang-related activity throughout the city. "

Gang validation

Many of the council's questions for Davis on Thursday centered on the process that found Durham currently has 2,060 gang members.

The gang validation process starts with a suspicion that a person is involved in criminal activity, and then moves on to documenting at least two of 12 criteria set by the Governor's Crime Commission and adopted as gang policy by the N.C. Department of Public Safety.

The process includes different categories, such as suspected gang member, validated gang member and associate.

Individuals can be taken off the list after five years with no criminal activity.

Schewel recommended reducing that window to three years because of the impact being on the list might have on someone's life.

"Being on that list is such a heavy burden," he said.

Bonfield suggested the city and county gang reduction strategy committee take that up at its next meeting.

Council member Jillian Johnson asked about data from previous years.

Jason Schiess, analytic services manager, said 2019 arrests exceeded any of the three previous years.

-- In 2019, 351 gang members were arrested 681 times and charged with 464 felonies and 835 misdemeanors.

-- In 2018, 330 gang members were arrested 514 times and charged with 544 felonies and 659 misdemeanors.

Johnson asked Davis whether six new positions would lower the arrest numbers.

Davis said she hopes it would.

"We know many of the crimes that we saw last year, and probably the last two years, there was a group of individuals that were just repeatedly arrested over and over again," she said.

Council member Charlie Reece said he appreciated Davis' creating a hybrid system in which patrol officers and investigators respond to shootings and work together to investigate gang-related crimes.

"I want to make sure we do what we can to support this work ... and to make sure that as we go forward we know how it is working and what the results are," Reece said.

Council members Mark-Anthony Middleton and DeDreana Freeman said they support making the six gang-unit spots permanent.

"I think it's a bad idea to continue to use overtime and to hope that officers will volunteer " Middleton said. "I just don't think that is a good enough response to the people at Southside, or Oxford Manor, or McDougald Terrace, or on Junction Road where I work."

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