Durham County Sheriff to discuss efforts to reduce violent crime at community event
DURHAM, N.C. (WTVD) -- The Durham County Sheriff will discuss efforts to reduce violent crime on Friday.
Sheriff Claren Birkhead is hosting a community event about Project Safe Neighborhoods. This national partnership aims to use evidence and data-based approaches to reduce crime.
The event is at 11 a.m. at the Durham Justice Services Department building on East Main Street.
This comes after multiple shootings on Thursday across the city, leaving a 16-year-old dead.
According to DPD's latest report on crime in the city, violent crime has decreased by 3 percent compared to 2022 to 2023. However, Durham did see an 11 percent increase in the number of shootings.
ABC11 spoke with Mayor Leonardo Williams about the violence happening in Durham.
"We have to take a holistic approach to, you know, just crime involving the youth," he said. "And the fact of the matter is, the people who are living in the zone where shots fired was, are the ones that are asking what is wrong with us as a council and where is ShotSpotter?"
Durham City Council voted not to renew its contract with the controversial ShotSpotter, an AI-powered gunshot detection technology last March. The vote was 4-2 with Williams and Mayor Pro Tem Mark-Anthony Middleton on the side of keeping the program in effect.
WATCH | Durham City Council rejects ShotSpotter by 4-2 vote
Durham Police Chief Patrice Andrews said the program was another tool for her investigators but one year wasn't enough to know its full effect.
"One more tool is better than no more tools," she said. "If we're looking at prosecution, that's something that would've taken much longer to look at."
ShotSpotter was set up at the end of 2022 to see whether it could lower call response times. The Duke study concluded last week it did but did not show evidence it brought down gun violence overall.
ShotSpotter, which has now rebranded as Sound Thinking, did not pick up every instance of gun violence. It failed to pick up eight shootings with one or more victims.
Of the 29 incidents that resulted in arrests, only seven happened because of a ShotSpotter notification.
RELATED | Raleigh joins forces with Department of Justice to address gun violence
