Fighting Crime and Protecting the Public

We must continue to minimize and hopefully limit the impact of gangs and criminals who serve to drive, dictate and undermine the possibilities of bright futures for our youth, and the safety and health of our community.

Since I have been Mayor my number one priority has been to work with the city council, the city administration and the community to reduce crime in our city. Other than those who may commit crimes I don't know anyone who doesn't have zero-tolerance for crime. However I do believe in giving persons a chance and holding them accountable and responsible and letting them know of the consequences for their irresponsibility. Program Project STRIKE, a program started by the Police Chief, the City Manager and myself was a unique program designed to address the gang problems in our city and that program contributed to the reduction in the number of homicides in 2006 as compared to the number of homicides in 2004 and 2005. Let me hasten to add that even though the number of homicides in 2006 were 15, an all time low for almost 20 years, even one (1) homicide is one (1) homicide too many.

As Mayor I have put forth specific proposals that require the police department to report more frequently at our public meeting on our crime statistic trends so that the public and council are aware and that we can take specific action to focus on those areas where the trends are increasing. In this year's city budget I supported and voted for increasing the number of police officers which will allow for more police presence especially in those parts of our community that are experiencing higher incidents of crime.

With the support of the council, the business community and other public institutions I will continue to support the Mayor's Summer Youth Program, a program that I reinvigorated which has hired over 350 young people during the summer and given them a positive experience as well as introducing many of them for the first time to the "world of work".

As I did in my 2007 state of the city address, I'd like to re-emphasize that the responsibility for making Durham safe is a community responsibility not just a law enforcement responsibility. We all have a role to play, and we all must get involved to help reduce crime in general and specifically to reduce violent crime in our city. We did see a dramatic reduction in the number of homicides in 2006. I am convinced that as a community we can also reduce the number of violent crimes in our community.

William V. Bell Campaign Committee
P.O. Box 12535
Durham, NC 27709
(919) 768-2398