The Durham County Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) wants city leaders to allow a more "proactive approach" to fighting crime and said they need additional officers to respond to gun violence's rising level.
The Durham Police Department reported that 27 citizens were shot in September, bringing the number up to 226 for the year — a 40% increase compared to the numbers for the same period last year.
"Current staffing levels on Uniform Patrol are not adequate, which makes it difficult for them to conduct additional proactive enforcement when they are not answering calls for service," according to an email from the FOP as reported by CBS 17 on Oct. 5. "The department is continuing to utilize overtime to provide additional staffing for patrol. However, this is only a Band-Aid approach."
The FOP also said that they need discretionary officers, CBS 17 reported, who are part of a High Enforcement Abatement Team (HEAT) to focus on specific problems in districts where violent crime occurs.
Some FOP Members and officers also recommended resuming driver's license checkpoints as a way to keep violent offenders off the streets, but Durham police recently issued a release stating that these checkpoints were "minimally effective in deterring crime and they disproportionately were targeting minority communities," CBS 17 reported.
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