 Hello, I'm her out chest and the facilitator for Cedar wide pack against crime. I want to thank the pack facilitators constant standing to direct the neighborhood improvement service department and her staff for help to organize this community conversation. With the Durham Police Department, Sheriff's Department, officers and Durham over the emergency community center. Mostly important, I want to thank Durham residents for joining us tonight. It would take all of us working together to create a safer Durham. Thank you. The partners against crime pack was birthed at the US Department of Justice we can see strategy in around 1991. The community leaders in Durham at the time decided to adopt the week and see concept as an effort to reduce crime and create viable, safe and thriving neighborhoods. Some of the same concepts we can see still exists today. Impact. We didn't consist of law enforcement and prosecutors efforts to weed out criminals who participate and violent crime, drug abuse through enforcement, adjudication, prosecution and supervision. Seating brings prevention intervention treatment and neighborhood revitalization services to the area. The use of time community policing, which became a major backbone of the pack strategy is a collaborative effort between law enforcement and the community to identify problems of crime and disorder and involve all elements of the community in the search for solutions to these problems. The partners against crime also adopted a major strategy from we can see the neighborhood restoration economic development element of we can see strategy was designed to vitalize distress neighborhoods and improve the quality of life and the designated communities to economic development and a restoration of the community's health and wellness. Neighborhood restoration programs help to improve living conditions, enhance home security, allow for low cost physical improvements to develop long term efforts to renovate and maintain housing and provide educational, economic, social, recreational and other opportunities. Neighborhood restoration can be achieved only through the collaborative effort and the use of federal state local and private sector resources. Thirty years later, and the darn community still face some of the same issues, such as high crime, affordable housing food insecurities and racial disparities and education and public health. All district packs remain committed to working with the community, city and county governmental agencies and departments, local businesses and schools to make Durham a safe, thriving and welcoming place to live. We will now have packed to introduce themselves. Good evening everyone. My name is Rebecca read jolly. And the co facilitator for pack to which is located in North Durham. We meet the second Monday, each month at 6pm. We're doing zoom edition right now but we look forward to in person meeting sometime in 2022. You can also reach us on Facebook at pack space to dash in space Durham at pack to Durham, and I will put the the link in the chat so if you want to have any additional information about pack to, I'll certainly address that. Thank you everyone. Rebecca. Good evening. My name is Mindy solely, and I am the co facilitator of pack three. Our district is the Southwest Quadrant of the city of Durham. Currently, we are also meeting virtually the second Saturday of every month at 10am. Our next virtual meeting is Saturday, December 11. You can contact us at pack three leadership team at gmail.com to get on the pack three lists serve. Thank you very much. Hello again. Hello again. I'm her out just now. I'm also the facilitator for partners against crime district four and five. We meet every second said at campus field at 10 o'clock. In 2019 we met virtual the same time every second Saturday. If there's any questions please give me a call or email me. I will put my information in the chat room. Thank you. Good evening everyone. My name is Regina Mays and I am the former co facilitator for district one path one, and I am a resident of Eastern, which that pack meets every third Saturday of the month promptly at 10 30am at Halton Resource Center located on North Driver Street. And we welcome you in person to join. That is the only way we presently meet. I will go into the purpose of this conversation this evening, and it is to discuss how to build a stronger and safer community through conversation, because we want to break the stigma that community and law enforcement cannot work together, because we truly can. Tonight, we will provide you with the resources from DPD and the 911 emergency communication center, along with after the presentations. We will end the night with a brief Q&A with the Durham Police Chief Patrice Andrews and Durham Sheriff Clarence Burkhead. At this time, will all presenters please unmute yourself and take your turn on your camera so you can introduce yourself and your department. Good evening everyone my name is Jennifer Hinchie I am a victim witness services coordinator with the city of Durham Police Department. Good evening everyone I'm Sergeant Mark Vastanich and currently I'm the acting lieutenant for community service division. Good evening my name is Officer Mark and I am the community resource officer for District 3 and District 1. Good evening everyone my name is Patrice Andrews and I am the chief of police for this great city of Durham. Good evening everyone, Sheriff Clarence Burkhead Durham County Sheriff's Office. Thank you all. Now we will jump right into our presentations and each panelist describing briefly what exactly their department do and how can the communities stay in touch with you. So right now we will have Jennifer Hinchie from the victim services department speak first. Good evening everyone again my name is Jennifer Hinchie and I'm a victim witness services coordinator with the city of Durham Police Department. Next slide please. The victim witness services unit is committed to providing essential services to crime victims and witnesses of crime to ensure that they're treated with respect, compassion, fairness and dignity. Next slide please. The victim witness services unit is governed by the North Carolina's Crime Victims Rights Act. The general statute outlines the responsibilities of law enforcement agencies across the state of North Carolina, stating that they must provide crime victims within 72 hours, certain responsibilities and those responsibilities include information on medical services, information on crime victims compensation, contact information for the prosecuting district attorney's office and the local law enforcement agency investigating the crime, and lastly information about the accused opportunity for release. Our agency meets the requirements outlined by the general statute, both on scene with our patrol officers and through the efforts of the victim witness services unit. Next slide please. This slide shows the crime victims rights form that our patrol officers provide to victims of crime well on scene of the incident. The first column lists the rights of crime victims to be informed throughout the whole criminal justice response process. In the second column, it provides the required contact information for victims compensation, the law enforcement agency investigating the crime, the local district attorney's office and for pre trial release programs. Next slide please. On the back of this form. We have provided local resources to assist victims of crime to include information on how to obtain a protective order and local information about service providers such as the Durham crisis response center and Alliance Health, which both operate 24 hour support services. It also highlights the unit in which I work as a victim witness services coordinator. Next slide please. The unit makes contact with victims of violent crime by phone, mail, email and in person. The services that we provide include providing emotional support to victims and witnesses of crime. Another area where we offer support is filing North Carolina crime victims compensation claims. We have those applications and assist victims and their loved ones to complete that application process, which allows them to possibly receive funding for things like medical services, counseling services, crime scene cleanup, and in the instance there's a loss of life, it could cover funeral expenses as well. We also provide basic case status information and updates and referrals to local resources depending on the needs of the victims. We participate in various multidisciplinary teams to include a domestic violence and sexual assault response teams and also a human trafficking task force. Lastly, each year in the month of April we participate in national crime victims rights week programs, bringing events and activities to the local members of our community here in Durham. Next slide please. We are currently housed in the community services division at the police department over on Holloway Street. We have three full time victim witness services coordinators that work Monday through Friday from 8 to 430pm. If you have any questions or concerns or you have been a victim of a crime, please don't hesitate to reach out and make contact with any of the three of us. Also be on the lookout for information for upcoming events for national crime victims rights week of 2022. Thank you for your time and attention this evening, and I would be happy to take any questions at this time. Next slide please. Okay, we thank you Jennifer Henshey for presenting this evening. And if any questions come about as the community thing through some things, it is okay to use your chat and we will definitely come back to those after the next presenter. Right now we will have a presentation by Sergeant Fiskon for Connich. I'm going to get it right. From the community engagement unit. Good evening everyone again. Yes, I am Sergeant Mark Fiskon with the community service division. And I'll start as soon as the slideshow presents itself. So one of the squads in our division is the community engagement unit. Next slide please. So what does this community engagement unit do it aims to address the root causes of crime in areas throughout Durham, as a strategy of neighborly visibility safety education programs and intervention initiatives. The name community engagement unit says it all. They have to engage in the community. When this happens they make the neighborhood safer and more secure. So how do we go about doing this. First, we must build trust and strengthen relationships with residents. Second, identify and address quality of life issues. And third, we develop partnerships with various departments and organizations that address quality of life issues, and this builds the trust and strengthen those relationships. Next slide please. We have to build trust within these communities. First, we have to get out into the community as simple as it may seem sound. We have to go out and talk to the residents. This is community policing at its best. We have to find out their concerns, let them know we are not only there to protect them, but also to help. We do this by walking around in these neighborhoods and get to know each other. We classify these as foot patrols in the police world. This allows residents to become familiar with us. We are not just looking to enforce the law, but health. We also assign officers to different communities to include apartment complexes and DHA properties. Officers will check in with property managers if the community has one to find out ways that the community can help to dirt crime as officers cannot be everywhere so it has to start with each individual community first. As officers continue with community policing, they find out the concerns of the residents, the quality of life issues. These concerns could be from the recent trends such as violent crime, drugs, gang activity, property crimes, even an abandoned vehicle, which can be an eyesore. Our community engagement is just not about crime, but is to help the community. They help to remove graffiti off walls. They will get shoes removed off of power lines, which is sometimes a sign of gang activity, or drugs can be sold in those areas. To engage with these communities, officers will hold pop-up events, safety seminars, workshops, and community meetings. This is simple as putting a table out with some giveaways and handing out safety tips. Another way of building trust with the youth is during the summer we have six weeks of summer camps. Here are the youth to get to interact with the officers while they go hiking, fishing, playing sports, race fast RC cars, and learn CPR. The list goes on. Next slide, please. As I mentioned earlier, the third way to make neighborhoods safer and secure is by partnering up with different organizations, churches and groups to help make the city of Durham a better place. We volunteer with many nonprofit organizations to provide services for the community. Here's a small list of a much larger list of recent partners that we partnered up with. The Durham Bike Co-op. It is an all-volunteer nonprofit organization that uses bikes to make communities a better place. They help to repair and give out bicycles. One of our officers has been known if a bike is beyond repair, he will replace it with a newer refurbished one. ICNA Relief of North Carolina. ICNA stands for Islamic Circle of North America. This is also a nonprofit. It provides social services and food distribution. The Zacot Foundation is a militant charity, and it has partnered with us to help feed low-income families. Sleep in Heavenly Peace is another nonprofit organization. They work off donations to supply raw materials to make beds for kids who do not have one to sleep on. Keep Durham Beautiful is another nonprofit organization which works to engage and inspire individuals to take ownership of their environment. And of course, the Durham Fire Department and then a neighborhood improvement services who is hosting this wonderful event so I can get to speak to you. The Community Service Division is a wealth of knowledge of when it comes to resources. As we found out, some of the underlying issues and concerns which might not always be related to crime, and this is where we can coordinate with our partners to better serve the residents. Many times a crime may have occurred, but the root cause may have been mental illness. Instead of taking someone to jail, we could refer to another partner, NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Next slide, please. I want to thank all of you for your time and listening to me. We are constantly looking for new ways to engage in the community, so please write down my information or the other supervisors. And I would be more than glad to help you out. At this time, are there any questions? We have one question from Michael Baylent. How does your unit empower the community? Basically, by being with them, getting out there, getting to know them, I will say when I've been out there with them, it's just walking around. There was one day that I got to just walking around, getting to know people. I sat down on one of the edges of the sidewalk and just talking to somebody for about 40 minutes, and at one point in time, this lady, she started to cry with just a conversation that we had. So just getting out there and getting to know the people is by far, but in my opinion, is the best way to empower. Great. We also have a question from Robert. Has the CEU efforts been reduced because of the current staffing issues? Yes. Thank you. Sorry, I'm scrolling through here. So a question from Michael, but I don't know if we want to kind of postpone this one of how will you connect with the newly formed safety department? We'll have to say we'll defer on that one as that one is still being processed at this time. And from a Reverend D, I'm sorry, I cannot see your full name. It was thanking you and announced the churches that you work with in the community for your department specifically. I believe is what the question is leading to. Well, I want to thank them as well too, because they're the ones that help us out that we'd like to coordinate with and if they would like to coordinate some type of event, please don't hesitate to contact me. Okay, and I will take this second before we move to the next presenter. Thank you. Sergeant is Connich. Thank you. I do want to just touch on a bit of a clarification because I do understand the news report that went out this morning. I also saw it myself. So being facilitator and being part of the planning for this conversation, please let me make it very, very clear. Yes, we will be accepting questions and comments from the community per these departments. But I just want to be clear that we are staying specifically to these departments and that is why this is hosted by the different district packs in the community. So you can take other concerns that you might have back into your pack areas because these are citywide departments being presented this evening and when you go into your districts. They have their individual district that they deal with and that they address their crime reports and different things that at nature. So I will be mindful of the questions that are being asked and the comments being made. It is not to be disrespectful to anyone on the line, but I do want to make that very clear this evening on the purpose we are here. I want to learn about the different citywide departments throughout the Durham Police Department and also have, like we said, some brief Q&A with the sheriff and the chief of police. Thank you. Our next presenter will come from Officer Mark from the Community Resource Unit. Good evening. My name is Officer Lauren DeMogg and I'm currently assigned to the Durham Police Department's Community Resource Unit. The Community Resource Unit encourages, educates and trains Durham residents, businesses and various demographics to use best practices and strategies to do your crime and minimize opportunities for crime to occur. How does the Community Resource Unit get involved with residents with our residential programs. Our home security assessment is a free service to residents and burglary victims. Our light assessments is a free service to residents as well. We assess lighting in the communities and we work closely with the City of Durham Transportation Office. The speed trailer, next slide, sorry. The speed trailer is a device that shows a digital display of a motorist speed as they drop by. The goal is to slow down speeders. Next slide please. How does this Community Resource Unit get involved with businesses with our business programs? Crime prevention through environmental design is the proper design and effective use of a built environment that can lead to a reduction in fear and incidence of crime. And it improves the quality of life. The four principles of SEPTED includes natural surveillance, natural access control, territorial reinforcement and maintenance. We also offer Robert prevention training and workplace balance training. The Community Resource Unit hosts an annual business workshop. The picture you see to the right of your screen is from our 2019 business workshop. We attend the Durham Business Against Crime monthly meetings and share this program with the businesses that we make contact with in the field. Next slide please. How does the Durham, I mean, excuse me, how does the Community Resource Unit get involved with youth with our youth programs? We offer a stranger danger program with a presentation. We offer a bike safety and bike rodeo. You can look at the picture to the right of your screen. And this is from our September bike rodeo at the Waltown Park. We collaborated with our Community Engagement Unit and Durham Parks and Recreation. We also offer kids ID. And we have a treats and a fleet, which is our Halloween holiday safety event, which is held annually at the Walmart and Lynn School Road. Next slide please. How does the Community Resource Unit get involved? Excuse me, with the community. With safety meetings, presentations upon request. We attend community events. We also set up informational tables and pop ups. We offer a Community Police Academy, which is our premier program for those wanting to know more about the operations of the Durham Police Department. As is feasible during the year, either virtual or in person academies may be offered. We held three virtual classes since the pandemic. October is our crime prevention month. And we provide residents with safety tips prior to the holiday season. Be on a lookout for upcoming holiday safety tips. I would like to take this opportunity to tell everyone listening to secure and remove valuables from their vehicles. Don't leave spare keys and never leave a weapon unsecured in a vehicle or a home. Next slide please. How does the community get the resources it needs? Easy. Contact the Community Resource Unit directly. The community resource officers will contact victims in person by phone, email, and mail. Through our safety literature, resources and recommendation. The picture to the right is of our Park Smart signage. Residents can also submit a community service viewer request, which is an online form to register their events and meetings. We attend monthly PAC meetings, which is partners against crime to help address community needs and direct residents to the appropriate district commanders, other units, and resources. Next slide please. The Community Resource Unit is located at District 1 substation. The address is 921 Holloway Street. Next slide please. Feel free to contact the Community Resource Unit to learn more about our programs and resources. And thank you for listening. And next slide please. Now time for questions. Thank you very much, Officer Mark, for your presentation. We will now move on to Elizabeth Pool with the Emergency Communication Center, better known as 9-1-1. Hey everybody. I think I was actually skipping introductions and that is okay. So I'm Elizabeth Pool and I'm the education and training coordinator here at Durham 9-1-1. So I'm going to be talking to you briefly just a little bit about us at 9-1-1. For those who know me out there, especially with the police department and some of you out there in the community, if you've ever heard me speak, maybe a challenge for me to speak in such a small amount of time. But I want to go ahead and offer up front that if you have any events that you would like me to come out and speak to, any charges, any HOA, any neighborhood events, community groups, I would be just delighted to come out and talk to you all and give you all the time that you need to ask all the questions. I know we have a lot of things we won't have time to cover, but I just want to let you know you can reach out and contact our agency and I definitely will come out and be glad to speak to y'all further. So you can go ahead and go to the next slide please. What do we do at 9-1-1? We actually answer all the 9-1-1 calls for the city and the county of Durham and we dispatch all Durham city police, all Durham County EMS and city and county fire departments. We don't dispatch Durham County Sheriff's Department. They have their own communications center, but we work very closely with them. So if we get calls that are in the county, we can transfer the callers straight over to the Sheriff's Department and they can take over from there. We provide life-saving instructions for those in need. Next slide. So what should you do when you call 9-1-1? You need to be prepared to tell us what is the location of your emergency. You need to remember and keep in mind that when we're on the phone with you, we didn't see what you saw and didn't experience what happened. So we're going to ask you what is the location of the emergency? So you need to be prepared to tell us an address, a block range of that street, an intersection, where on the highway are you? You need to be aware of your surroundings at all times. You want to be able to tell us the telephone number you're calling from so in case we get disconnected, we can call you back. And then we want to know what is the nature of the emergency? Tell me exactly what happened because I don't know. I wasn't there. So it's important that you listen to our questions and be able to give us the information that we need so we know how to proceed with your emergency with your call. Next slide. So we have protocols that we use. Our employees have extensive training that teaches us all how to ask the same questions in the same order, the same way to get the correct results. And our protocols standardize the call taking process. So we're going to ask you, you know, again, where's the emergency? What happened? We need to know information if it's a police call at the time of occurrence. We didn't know if it's medical as a person breathing. Are they conscious? Are they alert? What's on fire? We're going to ask you a lot of questions. And then based on what you tell us, we know how to process the car and what helped to get on the way. But we also can provide life saving instructions over the phone so we can tell you how to do the helmet maneuver. We can tell you how to stop the bleeding, talk someone through CPR. So, even though we aren't the ones who are physically responding, we are responding to you verbally and providing certain instructions that can help save a life over the phone while units are en route. Next slide. So, it's really important to know that if you call 911, do not hang up. Even if you call us in this emergency, I'm sorry, it's not an emergency. Don't hang up, stay on the line and let us know what's going on. Now, also you need to be aware that you can text to 911. We cannot initiate a text from our end, but we can receive a text to 911. So this is something that you will want to use in a situation where making a voice call would just not be safe. If somebody's been kidnapped and they don't want to let the suspect know that they're reaching out to us and they still have their phone, they can text us to 911. And it's important though the same thing that you can still tell us where do you need help. Next slide. So again, we are not the ones physically responding. So we are communicating with police fire and EMS over the computer and over the radio. So while we are talking to you, help is not being delayed. Generally, what causes a delay is when a caller wants to argue and ask, why are you asking me so many questions? Just send them. We have to ask certain questions so we know who we're sending. So it's important that you work with us and you let us know what's going on so we can type everything in the computer system that we use and we can dispatch our units. And then as you answer our questions, we're able to update those units on the way with what exactly is happening. And it's important also that we keep our callers safety in mind as well as our field units safety in mind. So if there's a dangerous situation, we're not necessarily going to have those units go right in like if it's EMS or fire. They will have to what we call stage and standby till police can get there and secure a scene because think about this. What are you really going to do if you send your medical help or your fire health into a situation and then they become victims and now your health are victims and we're kind of going backwards really fast. So seeing safety is very important for our callers and our responders. Next slide. Children and 911. I bet if I asked every one of you how many times have you let a child or grandchild play with your phone. We all would kind of laugh and raise your hand. We get a lot of calls from kids playing on the phone. It's important to teach your children how to use 911 and when to use 911. So we really encourage you having conversations with with your kids and kids in the community about the importance of 911. But please make sure that you are not handing over cell phones for kids to play with because they always figure out how to call 911. And then we're kind of sometimes chasing what tend to be false calls or kids again just playing on the phone. But we don't know that something's not really wrong and maybe grandma can't speak and the child was trying to get help. But it's important to talk with children about 911 and believe your mind kids can be some of the best 911 callers because they don't always understand the severity of the situation. And they will actually tell you the truth as to what's going on. But just teach them about not playing on the phone. That's really important for them to know as well. Next slide. So some quick tips for calling 911. Again, do your best to stay calm. And please understand that, you know, we are professionals. We have an extensive amount of training and we know what questions that we need to ask. Even though you may think the question is not relevant, I promise you it is relevant. Again, know your surroundings know the location of your emergency. I still tell people today put your address on your refrigerator somewhere in your house that when you're teaching those kids about calling 911 that they know where to find the address because you will be surprised. You can live somewhere for 30 or 40 years and you have that one emergency you'll forget your address. And think about you, the community, you're our eyes in the ears and we count on you telling us and describing, tell us what's going on describing the situation kind of painting the picture for us. And then we have to in turn paint the picture for our responders so we are a team in that moment on the phone. And again, post your address make sure your address also is visible for the responders don't assume that everybody knows where you live. So I encourage you to think about what do you have posted outside are your street numbers visible on your mailbox or on your door that's something you really should look into and make sure that those numbers are very visible. Next slide. Thank you so non-emergency information. If you need to reach the nine one center only non-emergency line. That number is 9195604600. And you can call us if you have like general questions something that has nothing to do with any, any immediate emergency there's no threat to a person or property. You're fine to call that number just know that it still rings into the nine one one center and we are going to take the novel one calls first over the non-emergency lines. But if you want to reach our administrative offices. That number is 9195604500. And that's the number you can call if you want to get me to come out and talk to your community groups. But if you have any other questions and you want to talk to our director we welcome your questions. And you can call the 4500 number to reach our administrative offices Monday through Friday we're generally I believe eight three to four 30 or eight before three. Next slide. So does anybody have any questions for me. This is the first time I haven't had questions. I hope y'all are going to reach out and have me come talk to y'all and we can talk and y'all can ask all the questions you want to it's okay. I know we have limited time but thank y'all so much I appreciate y'all asking me to be a part of this our department really, really does appreciate that. And we thank you for being here. So now we will prepare ourselves and we do have a few pre submitted questions from the community that went through some pack facilitators. Mindy I don't know if you're asking that from all the panelists as a whole or if you're just referring to now on one. But the question is, are you understaffed. Oh, for now on one. Thank you. Um, let me see if I can. So can y'all hear me still. Yes. Right. So we are we have actually I'm so excited y'all, we have been doing some aggressive recruiting, and we actually are on our fifth training Academy for the year and we're preparing for our first Academy for 2022. So we have done amazing recruiting efforts, and I will say that just in general the 911 industry has a lot of industries have struggled with staffing issues so not unique to 911. But we are really going in an amazing direction so now I'm working really hard, all of us here in our department are working hard getting so many people trained but we're really excited. We're with the applicants and with these academies that we have going. We are really busy so we hope here soon we will be fully staffed and so again very exciting times for us. And if you could just mention briefly how someone can apply. Sure with any job for the city. You can always go to the city of Durham's website dormancy.gov and you can go and look for all the job openings under city jobs. So you can see all the positions so it's not unique just to the police department or 911, but everything that the city is hiring for. So, and I will tell y'all I have to throw this plug in y'all. I'm an East Durham girl I've been in Durham all my life. I've been here at 911 for 26 and a half years so I love the city of Durham I have grown up here so please go check out and see what jobs the city is hiring for we would love to have you can be a part of our family. So, it's not great out in there because I'm all about their arms. We will welcome you aboard. We do have a question of why do you require candidates who have a driver's license for employment for 911. So, we have a lot of certifications that we have to give insecurity clearance and so there are a lot of requirements that are set for other standards or other other certifications so that's where that becomes relevant. So the things that we have in place for applicants are requirements for other things you have to obtain to be able to work with us. And I do want to mention that Laura has put the link to the city jobs careers in the chat. So you can always click on that or copy paste from the chat, but also a question for you Elizabeth is about the current response time and how is it trending. What perspective that isn't that is being asked from but I will tell you it's interesting I was just talking to some of our new hires today and talking about how we are very fortunate in Durham that we have amazing response times. For an example, a lot of times for us were actually on the phone with our collars that we can be taken a call where somebody's not breathing and we're talking somebody through CPR and we're in the middle of those instructions. And our first responders from the fire department are there the police department are there and EMS is already pulling up. And I've done a lot of speaking now one events conferences and things across the United States and it's very interesting to talk to other parts of the country where they have very rural areas where they have very lengthy response times. So, I understand that and see how fortunate we are in Durham that we have amazing response times for all of our units. So again it goes back to like I was saying that while we're on the phone and we're taking the call and processing the call. While I'm talking on the phone my partner beside me is sending the help and so we're in constant communication as to what's happening. So the units are getting all the updated information as I'm asking the caller of certain questions they're telling me the answers. We're letting the field units knows they know already what's going on what they're walking into. So, but our response times are really we're very fortunate during they're really good. I'm just going to let y'all know it's a party going on next to me so hopefully they're not coming into my sound. But the next question is, is there a percentage or can you speak on any data about an answer calls. I'm not going to go in that direction because I'm coming on as a training coordinator is and I don't have any of those stats in front of me. But that is something that you can reach out to our director, Mr. Randy Beaman and ask whatever questions regarding those types of stats and he'll be glad to get you that information. And thank you. I'm glad y'all ask questions. Thank y'all so much. Now one one is a hot topic right now. Yes, yes. Not the other department and so actually this question I'm going to kind of make to all panelists, because I'm going to double it up if it's okay. Are there any volunteer opportunities. And also, can we address some of the major issues at the current time within the city. Because we have a lot of services, but they are not reaching the community in effective ways. If you don't mind, I'll just go ahead and say since I'm still on the now, I'll be quiet. That for now and when we don't offer any volunteer opportunities just because of certain access that we have we're in a secure unit secured floor we're not open to the public and there's a lot of security clearance that employees even have to get just coming in the door before they get hired. So it's kind of challenging for us to do volunteer opportunities for those reasons so. With any other department like to address any of those please come off the camera. I mean I'm sorry, please turn your camera. And so I, I would say for on the behalf of the police department right now cobit has has has slowed us down on that. As far as any volunteer or internship opportunities. We're hoping to to kind of start that back again because that is a tremendous part of our recruiting as well. Thank you chief. I'm looking at you up. Okay. How can we have stats on response times but no. Not on answer calls. Again, please reach out to our department with the non immortality number. You can get those more specific stats. I just happened to have a conversation early about the other stats I was talking about. So that's something I was already speaking on today. So, but definitely reach out to our director 5604500 Mr. Randy beeman. Okay, and then we're going to take this last one of wouldn't not having a driver's license prevent someone from applying. I don't know if you can kind of clarify that a little bit Jackie or. So, again, there's certain requirements for certifications and things that processes for a certain employees that have to happen. Even like with getting fingerprinted we require we're required to have fingerprints done. You have to show your North Carolina driver's license. For that. So that's just one thing we have to show the getting fingerprints so there's certain certifications and certain security clearances that we ended up going through for this position. So for some things it could be that there's a standard that that is required that we have to meet. So that much I mean I can provide at this point in time. The set answer right now, maybe not the likable answers, but the set answer is basically, yes, you do have to have a license to apply for the 911 position. Okay. At this present time and please continue to send your questions in through the chat in the q amp a bar but we will move into some of the pre submitted questions that we did gather as facilitators throughout the community. And this will be addressed directly to chief Andrews and share for kids. And again, please continue to utilize the chat. If we are unable to address your direct question this evening, we will have pack facilitators address those on questions and concerns because we will be ending promptly at 730 this evening. So I want to say that ahead of time. One of the pre submitted questions was, how can residents support law enforcement and decreasing gun violence in our city. So I'll take that. So first of all, thank you for for having me on. So I would say this, you know, decreasing gun violence is a is a partnership. And, and I'm glad to hear that question so obviously we want to make sure that you know residents are reporting things that they see and obviously things that they know. We do have several components in which to do that anonymously. You know, also keeping in mind that you know criminal activity and criminals go where they are kind of allowed to be right. And so it's important that the that the residents send a message that that the criminal activity is not going to be permitted or allowed with within our communities of Durham. Unfortunately, we do have an element, and it's not all of the neighborhoods right there are select people that are coming into the community that are wanting to do harm and commit violent acts and that's why we need to get them out. And we need your help right and it's and it's it's events like this that serve help to serve as a conduit for that conversation and that discussion and also making sure that our residents and community as as a whole feel comfortable coming forward. Good evening everyone and thank you for the conversation. Regina and thank you for moderating this. You all have heard me say this before this is going to take a community effort to address the gun violence that we're experiencing in Durham and across Durham County. And we at the Durham County Sheriff's Office are constantly engaging in our communities, all across Durham County, but 85% of what we do at the Sheriff's Office takes place inside the city limits. When we talk about gun violence and I'm, you know, addressing it. It impacts all of us whether we live in the county or live in the city. So I'm really happy to say that the Durham County Sheriff's Office and Police Department has a long standing history of collaboration and cooperation and we just must continue to share our resources and continue to share our intel, and continue to reach the community so we can build those relationships. We build that trust so the community feels comfortable talking with us. We held a peace rally on Saturday, where I and some some residents, some citizens of Durham met with rival gang members who actually they actually called the meeting, because they were too tired of the gun violence. So that's the type of outreach we have to continue to develop and hopefully working with those who are criminal justice involved or war and in gangs, working with us to address it because they too are tired of seeing the senseless killings that are occurring day in and day out throughout our city. Thank you. Thank you both for that. Another pre submitted question was, how are most guns being brought into the city, and how can residents help to decrease this. And what we know is this is that, and I had, and I had staff pull some just cut some statistics on guns just in general but we are seeing an increase in the number of guns being stolen. Overall, and obviously we know that that means that there are illegal guns out there guns that are gained by, by, you know, car break ends for example guns that are left unsecured in cars. So that actually has made up about just over 50, 50% of the, the, the guns that we are seeing being brought into the city or being used in crimes and so, when we start talking about the, the problem of what's being the guns and what's happening to the city we do have to kind of look at certain behaviors, right. And this is where the community can be much more aware of securing their firearms right, making sure that they're taking their firearms out of their cars because we understand that that criminal is looking for that gun specifically right we've had instances where they leave everything else but get that gun, because there is going to be the intention of using it in the commission of most likely a violent crime. So we are seeing an increase it is up from last year. We've had about 297 guns stolen, and that's a 5% increase from from this time last year, and 53% were from motor vehicles guns. We used to be able to seize guns on traffic stops criminals are getting a little bit smarter, right. And so we have to be more strategic in, and how we are identifying where those guns are coming from and where they are at this point. Thank you. There are, there are a number of ways that weapons come into our city. There is a very strong black market, we know that we work with ATF DEA. Both of our agencies have officers assigned the task force. We know that, unfortunately, Durham is sort of a hotbed for gun distribution up and down the eastern seaboard if you think about it, we're, we're positioned right between DC, New York, Baltimore, and then down to Atlanta and Florida, and all points between. So we know that weapons come in and out of our city on a regular basis and we know how easy it is for young men and women to get access to weapons. But I am happy to say that we're working with our local state and federal partners and we are doing everything that we possibly can do to slow the proliferation of weapons in our city and confiscate as many as we possibly can. As the chief mentioned, a lot of the weapons that we're seeing here lately are being stolen. So you've heard me say before, we have to push for responsible gun ownership. If you're going to be a gun owner, and you're going to, you know, spout your second amendment right, then be responsible with it. If you have a weapon in the house, secure it in a safe, do not leave it unlocked in your vehicle because it's a hot commodity. And we're seeing guns, we're also seeing ghost guns, which are weapons that are being manufactured by individuals, either from a kit or buying a piece here We've confiscated ghost guns here at the Durham County Sheriff's Office this year, and that is a very alarming because we cannot trace those weapons and they're easy to make and they are just as deadly so we have to be smart. If we're going to own weapons, and we have to have sensible gun legislation to control who has access to those weapons. Thank you. So if it's okay with the both of you, I'm going to kind of rotate between the chat box Q&A and pre-submitted, just to make sure I try to get everything covered. We have a question from the chat saying what role do you think that Durham's legacy of urban renewal has played in creating these conditions and how do we correct them, these historical wrongs. Hmm, so I don't know that that's a question necessarily that can be addressed with just solely law enforcement. You know, I think that this is a, you know, when we start talking about, and some of you might have heard me say that when we talk about crime and criminality, you know, crime is the leaves of the tree right. The root is what causes that crime. And in order for us to address the crime we do have to go back and look at what are the causes of crime. And so I think that would be a question that quite frankly I don't have the expertise to be able to answer from a law enforcement perspective. I would agree with Chief Andrews that's a, it's a broad answer. It's a question that needs a broad answer. But make no mistake we all, we all know that with progress, we as city leaders and our city council, county commissioners have to be strategic in addressing those issues and create a Durham that is for everyone that no community is disenfranchised, but it will take a much broader conversation and perhaps in a different form. Thank you. And I would like to take a moment to say thank you to City Manager Wanda Page, who has also hopped on. Don't want to disregard anyone that definitely plays an important role throughout our city. So thank you for joining us. Question number three. What can we do to properly secure our guns? Well, I would suggest investing in a safe. And if you have the concealed carry you know of course you have to take the class and learn about gun safety in the home and on your person. I'm a gun owner, obviously, not just for my profession, but as an avid hunter. I keep guns but I have a safe and that safe stays secure. Early in my career I had kids at home. So you want to always make sure you keep those weapons out of reach, unloaded gun locks we distribute those here to Durham County Sheriff's Office. We're happy to come out and distribute gun locks in your community or at your fact meeting. But it really is all about keeping that weapon safe and out of the reach of our young people are certainly out of the hands of those who should not possess a weapon so safe gun locks always the way to go. Have we considered a buyback program. So that's one of the things that we are looking at. In my prior agency, we actually did have a gun buyback program. And, and so we are we are looking at doing that here it's been some years since we've done that in the city of Durham. I think it was I was probably at the early part of my career originally when I was here so that certainly that's something we're we're looking at. What would happen, or what happened to project safe neighborhood. So, I'm sorry, Sheriff know you go. All right, so we are coordinator retired in 2018. She was doing our project safe safe neighborhood so while we don't necessarily. We don't, we don't have project safe neighborhoods formally any longer we, we do. We do provide and offer some resources that are aligned with with the premise of project safe neighborhoods. Thank you chief and the chief may not be aware of some recent conversations that we've had with our federal partners and our neighboring law enforcement agencies. We are strongly considering relaunching the project safe neighborhood. We had great conversations with our a USA. As I've said, other agencies are neighboring to us elements County Orange County Wake County Vance County and just just to name a few, because we know it's going to take a regional approach. Some of the conversations that we've had about the violence and Durham certainly points to an opportunity for us to to reinvigorate or re Institute a project safe neighborhood so those those conversations are ongoing so stay tuned. Thank you and sheriff if you could just kind of tapping to as those updates come that are being made public how can the community be aware of them. Which updates as those broader conversations are being held. We know that, you know, there are conversations that just need to stay at the table for the moment, but as they kind of come down the channel is there like a public way. Sure. Yeah, absolutely. Right now it is certainly and it's an infancy with conversation. And if chief Andrews will remember when we did this back in the 90s, we will hold a press conference we will inform the community that we're launching this initiative. We will certainly invite our community stakeholders and organizations because, again, the design of the program is to have resources available on the front end. And, you know, the penalties on the back end. So we can treat this from a more holistic approach. It's not just about arresting folks it's about identifying folks and giving them an opportunity to come to the table. But yes, at the appropriate time we will certainly do a press release and press conference. Absolutely. Thank you for answering that I don't want everybody hitting your office up saying this is what you said online. So the next question will go into what about what's being done about the gun violence within our schools. I'm sorry did you say within our schools. Well, you know, we have a we have a very strong SRO program. We've got approximately 26 SROs assigned to 1314 schools and we wish we had enough SROs to be in all schools, particularly our elementary schools we're in all of our high schools. Right now, and it's been a rocky start to the school year now we're approaching the midpoint. But we have a great relationship with Dr. Mabanga and all of the principals and, and teachers and staff and a lot of students as well. That we're really making some inroads as you, you may recall, certainly folks who are listening that we had some some pretty knocked down drag out fights earlier in our school year. I can tell you that we've had 76 fights I happen to have those numbers here. We have 76 fights. We've had 68 calls for EMS to assist 44 disturbances or assaults, and we've had 28 drug complaints. We've confiscated 17 weapons. So we've been very active this year, and some of those cases that I've just mentioned here those numbers resulted in juvenile petitions that were referred. We're validated and moved on through the juvenile system, but we do a lot of referrals we try to reach our kids and teach them not to make these these bad choices. And certainly we have to address the fights and break those up and I can say we've done that, but we really try to reach the young people and give them an opportunity to correct their ways. We're not all about arresting folks our arrest numbers are way sharply down and decreased from this time last year. We can throw out the Kobe year but I can tell you we have had over 2600 encounters and we made 14 arrest. That's pretty good. Again, we use our referral system deferred prosecution team court juvenile justice system of counselors who are on hand really try to get these kids to not make these these bad choices. Thank you and thank you for also bringing up the fact that it's not just about gun violence that it are other safety concerns. And what your department is doing to try to get that under control and address needs that are within our community in our schools. And so the next question is about shootings. And are they how can you determine if they're gang related. And also, what is the police department. Not the sheriff's office so much addressing about this. So, you know, most of the time we're able to pretty quickly determine whether or not the motivation for a shooting is related to gang activity or for the furtherance of the game whether it's motivated or related. You know, staff or work pretty hard at that we do have several units within the police department that are focused around violent crime, specifically gang activity. And, and so we we are constantly working with our law enforcement partners to include the sheriff's office to include other agencies in other jurisdictions right so we know that that crime knows no boundaries. And we're constantly working with them to maybe help connect some of the, the shootings that we're having so generally if we have a shooting one night and then let's say another municipality has a shooting. You know we want to make that phone call to find out if they're, if they're connected not all of our shootings are related to gang violence right we do have shootings that are domestic related to domestic violence. And, you know, some shootings are robberies just gone wrong. So, so not all of them are, but but the ones that are we're able to pretty quickly determine whether or not that's that's motivated by the gang. And I correct that last question it was not counseling out the sheriff department but it was also addressing that question to the sheriff department also. I would echo what chief Andrews has said, we've been very fortunate that we've had less than 20 shootings in the unincorporated area of the county. And only, I think my number as of earlier this week was two people have been shot no homicides. The violence that we're experiencing inside Durham City limits certainly impacts Durham County residents as well. And so we're doing all we can to work with one another to address this violence. But as I said a moment ago, it really is going to take all of us, the community we need their input and today we, we had the homicide quilt display we have program this morning in front of the court house. And those victims who carry that pain with them every day. We need members of their communities to come forward. I always say there are at least two people in our communities who know someone that committed that crime. And we need them to come forward because it is it's going to take all of us to solve this. Thank you. And also another question is, if you all know what areas are having the most violent crime. Why not target those areas and be very present there. Well, some of you may know that I actually have created a strike team. And that is, that is purely designed for targeted enforcement. And we will continue to do that we visibility this week this week, we have identified three areas that I got information from some of my street sources, and we've increased our visibility in that area and we've, we've seized new weapons over pound two pounds of marijuana, some math. I mean, so it's working, and we do not want to over police our communities and we will not over police our communities. So, all of our efforts are designed to be very strategic and trying to identify and apprehend those who are committing these violent crimes, and we will continue to increase visibility. And our enforcement is still largely responsive. So when people call us, we will come, or if I get information like I got a couple of weeks ago, we will set up on these neighborhoods or these hot spots as we call them, and we will do this targeted enforcement to address their concerns. Thank you. Okay, this one chief is going to be directly to you. We all know that over the past last couple of years, Durham law enforcement has not had the support of the majority of city council members when it comes to the budget and staffing issues. With that being said, Chief, how will you be able to tackle Durham's growing crime epidemic, and how can the community help the help in the process. And does DPD still have the citizens on patrol program. Well, you know, I am fortunate to be working with a tremendous group of law enforcement professionals that are very knowledgeable with their, with their, with their job, their career. They know a lot. And certainly, they entered into this profession because that they understand that this was their calling so, you know, the support or lack of support does not have bearing on the mission that we that we do every day. And so I would say this that what we know is is violent crime and and the reduction of violent crime is really dependent upon a few things. It's community engagement, which as you've seen tonight, even with, you know, our staffing, we are still out there engaging with with our residents and our community as a whole in various aspects. It's also with focused and very purposeful enforcement strategies right. So the idea is that you want to be strategic in your enforcement, because when you just go out there and just enforce without a plan or a direction or a process, that's when you get into over policing, right. And then finally we want to also focus on prevention and intervention. So what is causing the crime. We know people are not born committing crime, right. There's most of the time there's something that has happened in their life that has caused this there is a circumstance or a situation. And I feel, you know, wholeheartedly that we must, you know, we must continue to invest in community based programs, and that is the city as a whole, right. We also provide those programs here within the Durham Police Department, because we do. We do believe in that we can have, we can have enforcement and good professional policing, as well as community based partnership with law enforcement that can be effective. And finally, I think the COP I think they are on hold because of COVID, but we are starting to kind of get that plan together on how to bring them back and do some program review to maybe revitalize them a little bit so thank you that was a great question not sure who asked it but thank you. Thank you for that and the next will be about shootings near convenience stores. Are there specific strategies taking place throughout the law enforcement when those shootings occur and do you see a pattern near the local convenience stores. I would say that we have not noticed a pattern near convenience stores. Certainly we have not tied any of the shootings into or relating them to convenience stores so we have not seen a anything that would stick out as a pattern for for us. Sheriff or kid do the DA office judges police sheriff office meet to address gun violence. The short answer is yes. Manager one to page city manager one to page has convened the violent crime reduction task force roundtable, and we meet monthly, and we've been meeting for a long time for years. These continue that conversation so we do share information, discuss strategies and talk about how we can do our jobs, and how we can work with the DA's office for successful prosecution so those meetings are ongoing and now we certainly welcome chief Andrews and to those meetings as well. With your mission you chief would you like to address that sound. I would just say ditto. I mean, I, you know, we had a very productive meeting this week, and they are helpful to bring all of us together and it also incorporates, you know, some of our partners that that are not necessarily tied into law enforcement it's a holistic approach that the city and the county are invested in, and it's refreshing. And it actually kind of leads in as a good segue into the next question. And I will say for audience purposes, I will only be asking a few more questions, but please note that the chat is being copied. So this continue this conversation can continue again within the past at their regularly scheduled meeting. So the next question goes into given the everyday violence seen in Durham today. How is it justifiable to be replacing police officers with social workers and chief Andrews. Are you comfortable with the city council reducing the number of officers in your department. So this is what I will say is that what we do know is that law enforcement officers. We respond to calls we are trained to respond to calls with people in crisis, however, we don't have the full cadre, the full tool belt, if you will, in order to properly address and provide services after the call and I think that we can all agree on that. So I certainly, you know, I certainly am supportive of an initiative that can help us do that, you know, I think I've heard time and time again that, you know law enforcement officers should not be responding to calls. And while I would agree with that I also recognize that you know we do have to be open to to to trying other alternative methods of addressing community issues and sometimes the police are just not equipped to be able to do that and we have some highly trained and better trained in crisis intervention right but but we do need more and so certainly I'm supportive of solutions and we will be great partners to the community safety department, because we do want it to succeed. And that is that is our my vision and that's that is kind of our stance on that. I would not like to count you out of this question if you would like to add anything or say anything to that. Well, I would just echo what the chief has said the city has launched this initiative, and the chief is correct, we should be looking at various models. I've long advocated for co responder model. I talked to my colleagues from Colorado to New Mexico to New York, we law enforcement should not be responding to all of these calls, but we certainly don't want to put clinicians and social workers in harm's way. So I'm going to continue to advocate for the co responder model. It's going to take all of us. It's not one versus the other you can't replace or reduce law enforcement services and shore up social services I think you need to do both. And I'm committed to working with the city of Durham, and they're all other agencies in departments that are looking at ways to ensure that we have proper police response and law enforcement from the sheriff's office, but also we need to address the mental health concerns and the mental health issues that are that are plaguing our city, and we haven't talked about mental health tonight but I think the number is some close to 2829% of the calls would respond to have a mental health component. We're not mental health practitioners, but when someone is in crisis their behavior is unpredictable. So we want to make sure that they get the help they need but we also want to make sure we keep our clinicians and social service workers safe as well. So again that's why I advocate for the co responder model. Thank you both and I will say this will be the last question this evening. Are we doing within Durham about confiscating guns in our community. Yeah, so we are confiscating guns. There is no doubt about that. This year we have confiscated about 600 guns I think it's 561. It's actually an increase from the number of guns that we have seized and confiscated last year so we are we are we are confiscating guns, but you know for every five or 561 guns there are out there that we confiscate. There are more coming in as you know the sheriff, you know Sheriff Burkett alluded to I mean you know they're making their own guns now. And so that's dangerous because oftentimes they don't come with they don't come with serial numbers they're there. The traceability for them is is is significantly lower, but that's we are confiscating those those firearms. And we've confiscated over 125 guns. It's almost every stop that we make. There's a gun involved and their drugs or there's alcohol and so yes the short answer is yes we and we will continue to target guns because of the gun violence that we are experiencing. It's really important that it's not just the Durham Police Department it's not just the Sheriff's Office, we are clearly working with our federal partners, because they have some resources that we cannot bring to bear and they have been so kind in working with us and so we're trying to slow the guns coming out of our community and prosecute the individuals who are responsible for the violence and really get these guns out of out of our community. I had a young man, teenager 13. Last week, we had a conversation with him because he posted on his Instagram, the weapon and he. The weapon has changed two or three times hands two or three times within his circle and his mother brought him in for a conversation. And he was telling us, you know, you can get, I can take this gun he can get another one. Just like, just like that so we've got to address that and we will continue to address it. Thank you. Thank you for highlighting that because that is the, again, one of the biggest points for this conversations to show it takes community. And so it may not be easy for a parent to say I need to, you know, address this issue with my child. But thank you for giving that example, just to maybe encourage some parents or other family members to make that step. That's very much appreciated. And at this moment, I will say, thank you all for joining us this evening once again. And if anyone in our audience is wondering about how they can see some of these questions we visited or maybe share with others. They can do so by going on the Durham County community. I'm sorry, the city of Durham community engagement Facebook page. And I believe we can also make it available amongst the different packs with the facilitators. And again, this is just the start of the conversation. I can attest to we in district one we have had Sheriff Burkhead come into our meetings and some other packs have had the DA and different members of the community come into their packs also so please do not let this evening be the ending part of this conversation. If we're especially going to work to have a stronger and safer Durham, it takes all of us I cannot stress that enough. So with that being said, this comes to a conclusion. Please visit the Durham community engagement dot or backslash pack groups for information on your past. And if you have questions about what district you might reside in, I believe the website can also do that if you just put in your address and different things that in nature. I also challenge everyone that is listening here this evening to get involved in your community. Don't just wait to assume or in person or however I know some are more comfortable with other settings, but there are multiple, multiple ways to get involved in your community. And I would say just to name a few by again attending a pack meetings, hopping on your city council city council sessions, County Commissioner meeting, because they both for both law enforcement agencies are the And those are the spaces that your voices are to be heard in your questions are to be answered. So we must not only just have conversations, but those are ways that you can take action, because you can have don't just have the conversation without the action to follow. And I strongly encourage that. So, thank you all have a wonderful evening. Happy holidays, however you choose to name that word that