I will provide a set of posts over the upcoming days showing the recent history in Durham -- and how desperately short-handed the police, 911 call center, and jail guards are in the city. This is because the city government did their best to chase their employees away and then did not agree to fund their back-fill and then spent the police funds on their pet projects. This, of course, is on top of the 2019 history where the city council rejected hiring new officers despite the soaring crime rate -- which only got worse in 2020 & 2021. Durham City Council rejects police chief’s request for more officers in 4-3 vote https://web.archive.org/web/2021010...observer.com/news/local/article231254083.html June 06, 2019 The City Council rejected the Police Department’s request for 18 additional patrol officers during a budget work session Thursday. The council voted to amend City Manager Tom Bonfield’s recommended budget by removing the Police Department’s $1.2 million request and instead allocating about $650,000 to increase pay for the city’s part-time workers to $15.46 beginning next year. Mayor Pro Tem Jillian Johnson offered the amendment, which was adopted 4-3 and supported by council members Vernetta Alston, Charlie Reece and Javiera Caballero. (More at above url) I will note that Johnson, Alston, Reece, and Caballero are the "progressive block" which recently lost their majority on the council in the 2021 election.
Here are the city budgets for each year for you. Go educate yourself. https://durhamnc.gov/209/Final-City-Budgets Here is a hint: Durham city leaders pledge more police staffing budget cuts https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/counties/durham-county/article251639688.html May 25, 2021 And then there is this in 2021... Some Durham leaders want to cut 60 vacant officer positions, reallocate funds for unarmed responders https://www.cbs17.com/news/local-ne...ions-reallocate-funds-for-unarmed-responders/ Of course the end result of their stupidity is this in November of 2021. Noting that a portion of county funding of the jail staffing comes from the city. Of course, this means that our county taxes are going up to cover this hiring of private security. Durham County unanimously votes to hire private security to cover shortage of deputies, detention officers https://www.wral.com/durham-county-...tage-of-deputies-detention-officers/19996843/
If you cut the funding for 60 short-handed positions and move the money elsewhere it is defunding. They started with 20 and then increased it to 60. Here is the coverage on the cutting of 20 position in May of 2021. Durham council moves to cut up to 20 vacant police positions to fund policing alternatives if budget passes https://www.cbs17.com/news/local-ne...-fund-policing-alternatives-if-budget-passes/
Go read the post above yours. You know where they voted to cut 20 position in May 2021 to fund their pet program.
Durham council moves to cut up to 20 vacant police positions to fund policing alternatives if budget passes Source showing that this actually happened