Police investigated 13,316 “major crimes” in Durham in 2009, down 3 percent from the 2008 total. Violent crimes actually decreased more than that, from 1,810 investigations in 2008 to 1,605.
Durham Police Chief Jose Lopez credits the lobbying campaign that he and Mayor Bill Bell conducted, asking judges to increase bonds for crimes that involve weapons. Many suspects in those cases are still in jail, unable to put together higher bonds while they await court dates.
Lopez also credits Operation Bull’s Eye, which focuses on North-East Central Durham — an area just north of Highway 147 that runs from Roxboro Street on the west boundary to Briggs Avenue on the east. The police department chose the area because it was “the densest two-square-mile area in the city of ‘sound of shots’ calls” in 2006.
Last year, crime in North-East Central Durham was down 10 percent, the biggest drop for any of the Durham neighborhoods. The district is still jumping — there were 2,521 total investigations in 2009, contrasted with downtown Durham’s 611 crimes — but it is headed in the right direction.
We wonder whether it’s thanks only to the police, or if a surge of investment and development in the area is also affecting the numbers.
That’s the premise of “Fixing Broken Windows: Restoring Order and Reducing Crime in Our Communities,” which argued that neglect — one broken window, for example — breeds further vandalism, then petty crime, then major crime. The authors argue that clearing trash and enforcing building codes can be as much of a crime deterrent as regular police patrols.
It’s an interesting theory, and one that might bear some experimentation in North-East Central Durham. People who live there aren’t wild about being called “The Bulls Eye” or the notoriety, which makes North-East Central sound like a no-man’s land of crime and cruisers.
That might have been a fair characterization four years ago, but the DPD crime report parallels increased investment in that long-neglected neighborhood. The area is getting a grocery store, two new restaurants have opened, and an internet cafe is on the way.
The community is developing assets that illustrate that it is up and coming, not down and out.
That nascent shift makes North-East Central a good laboratory for an idea that we should explore: Can an improved streetscape fight crime?
City budget cuts — which might go easier for DPD than other departments, but will still bite — are looming and, now that the crime numbers have momentum in the right direction, it might be time to find out.
