According to your posts it was lower than the previous mayor who has a bigger effect on crime than The DA.
Here is the latest from Durham, North Carolina -- where the "defund the police" crowd has been mugged by reality -- including loosing their progressive majority on the city council in the 2021 election. The latest survey of residents show the top issue is the residents demand for more police from a majority of people-- despite a vocal minority including three city council members still pushing "defunding the police". Of course, these characters sat in stunned science when the summary of the community survey was read back to them in a recent council meeting showing how idiotically wrong they are about their positions. Despite protest voices, Durham residents want more police https://www.wral.com/mike-andrews-despite-protest-voices-durham-residents-want-more-police/20166079/ “How many more of our young people are we going to lose to gun violence?” asked Durham County’s Sheriff Clarence Birkhead at a press conference in mid-December. Six teenagers had been shot just hours before at 3 a.m. in a stolen car in the City of Durham. Two of those teens were killed. “We cannot arrest our way out of this, but we can arrest those who are responsible and we will,” Birkhead also said. In fact, more than two months later, no one has been arrested for that fatal shooting. The City of Durham finished 2021 with a record number of 50 homicides. Just 48% of those led to arrests. And Durham’s record number of homicides in 2021 came after the Bull City’s record number of shootings (966) in 2020. “We cannot arrest our way out of this” is a common talking point Durham leaders offer these days when asked what’s being done to stop the gun violence. Answers often reference a “multi-faceted approach.” Solutions include better mental healthcare, education, jobs, affordable housing, and of course less access to guns. All of this is true. What’s also true is that Durham PD has identified 2,050 gang members in the Bull City, but City leaders rarely mention the word “gangs.” Intentional or not, “We cannot arrest our way out of this” deflects from the simple, but politically thorny, fact that Durham needs more police. It’s an inconvenient truth because there’s a vocal protest community in Durham that wants to defund the police. In the wake of the George Floyd tragedy, protesters justifiably took to the streets to voice a collective outrage many of us felt by what we all saw in Minneapolis. The protests clearly influenced Durham’s city leaders, who allowed a huge “Defund” painted sign to linger on the street in front of the police department headquarters for over a year. During that time, the Bull City lost police officers and suffered through its record number of shootings and then homicides. Now Durham PD has a 15% officer vacancy rate. The City Council recently approved a 10% pay raise for new officers, but city leaders did the new police chief no favors by digging a huge hole in the police department over a number of past budget cycles before she arrived. Now some patrol shifts are understaffed by 40%. The local police union says command staff is directing patrol officers to cut back on proactive policing like routine traffic stops. Traffic stops in 2021 actually led to 21% of the 734 illegal guns taken off Durham’s streets last year. Even with more focus responding to 911 calls, Durham PD response times for crimes in progress or life threatening emergencies average well over six minutes. That’s almost two minutes slower than Chapel Hill and slower than national standards. The current police academy has 13 cadets, but the department has 81 officer vacancies to fill. The shortage of police officers is only part of the problem behind Durham’s slow emergency response times. There’s also a chronic shortage of 911 operators that Durham cannot seem to fix. Durham’s 911 operator vacancy rate continues to hover near 40%. Throughout much of 2021 and into January of this year, the City’s 911 operators could not meet national standards of answering 90% of 911 calls within 15-seconds or 95% of calls within 20-seconds. Durham 911 took more than two minutes to answer some 60 emergency calls in January. Do the typically liberal-minded residents of Durham seem to notice the rising crime and withering public safety services? Yes, they do, and they don’t like it. Two Durham taxpayer funded surveys released by city hall just last week clearly show residents are not satisfied with police and sheriff protection and they want more police. The “2021 Resident Survey” of 727 Durham residents showed only 46% are satisfied with Durham’s police protection. Only 43% are satisfied with Durham County’s sheriff protection. These were the worst annual declines of any City service in this survey. 57% residents said the City and County of Durham should concentrate most over the next two years improving police protection. A separate “Police Satisfaction Survey” of 515 residents showed that Durham residents respect, trust and have confidence in Durham police. They also say preventing crime should be the highest priority for police, but only 25% have confidence in Durham PD’s ability to prevent violent crime. 60% think Durham does not have enough police. 10% think there are plenty. 30% are unsure. What will Durham’s new mayor and city council do with their own survey results? It’s uncertain. After seeing a presentation of their “Police Satisfaction Survey,” council members asked not a single question, though one did say, “The city has spoken… This is loud and clear.” Yes, it’s crystal clear. The loudest voices protesting Durham police and painting slogans on city streets do not speak for a majority of Bull City residents.