DURHAM, N.C. – City and county leaders in Durham gathered for a Crime Cabinet meeting on Friday. The Crime Cabinet is a regularly scheduled discussion group between Durham government and community leaders to brainstorm and act on issues related to crime.

 

 

 

Durham city manager Patrick Baker announced at the Crime Cabinet meeting a press conference on May 13 at about 9 a.m. At the press conference, which will be held at the Marriott Hotel in RTP, the North Carolina Attorney General will explain the details of a recent disbursement by the federal government that will provide both Raleigh and Durham approximately $1.25 Million to be use for the prevention and suppression of gang violence, and the reentry or rehabilitation of gang members into a better life.

 

According to Durham County chair Ellen Reckhow, county programs will have to participate in an application process to get money from the grant. Reckhow encouraged programs targeting middle school students to apply. The grant will be dispersed over a three year period.

 

 

Durham’s city and county managers announced both local government agencies would contribute $ 250,000 each to pay for an upcoming plan to address the nearly 50,000 unserved warrants in Durham County. The plan is being developed by a joint committee made up of city, county, and community leaders, who were charged by local government with the task of deciding how to develop a system that would addressed the unserved warrants that remain at the Durham County Jail on Magnum Street.

 

Both city and county managers say law enforcement in Durham have devoted extra staff and overtime hours to deal with serving warrants. They say over the past few months, 70 percent of felony warrants have been served successfully. They plan to reveal the plans to address unserved warrants by the July 11 Crime Cabinet meeting.

 

City councilman Eugene Brown said the committee charged with handling the warrants should look to the city of Winston-Salem as an example. According to Brown, Winston-Salem recently asked Community College volunteers to review similar warrants and purge the unnecessary ones.

 

Barker French with the Durham Roundtable says the state needs to speed up its development of a system called NC Aware. According to French NC Aware is a mobile computer system that allows officers to search for and print outstanding arrest warrants while out in the field. French says delayed funding has lead to a substantial delay in the rollout of the statewide system.

 

County chair Ellen Reckhow called for government leaders to development technology that would make law enforcement “smarter than the offenders.”

 

 

The cabinet said a faster fingerprinting system would also help keep repeat criminals off the street. According to county leaders, offenders’ fingerprints are presently mailed out for processing when an offender is taken into custody. Processing can take days, and that means officials must use the name an offender provides to search for a criminal background.

 

The cabinet called for increased technology that would use fiber optic lines to transmit fingerprint data, which would speed up identification from hours to days.

 

Officials say an accurate criminal history would prevent repeat offenders from being released on a reduced bond.

 

Members of the crime cabinet audience expressed concerns about security within the courtroom at the Durham county jail. That audience section of the courtroom is glass-enclosed, which would make entrance difficult for bailiffs if an incident were to occur. Bail bondsmen and community leaders say unlike the county’s courthouse and courthouse annex, the courtroom at the jail lacks a metal detector and a guard at the front door, which provides little security for the audience. They say the audience often includes members of rival gangs, which provides for a tense situation.

 

The Durham District Attorney also raised concerns about being able to process evidence in a timely manner because of limited resources. The cabinet called for grassroots phone calls to state leaders as a reminder of the various needs for the county.

 

The next Crime cabinet meeting is scheduled for July 11^th. At that meeting, the cabinet will assess the gang prevention grant. There will also be an update on Operation Bulls eye and the topics mentioned in this report. The meeting will take place at noon at the Durham County Commission building.