Durham County DA touts decrease in Durham violence in new campaign video for attorney general
Durham County District Attorney Satana Deberry released a new video this week for her North Carolina attorney general campaign.
The video released Tuesday claims violence has gone down in Durham unlike in other cities.
Crime numbers in Durham
Deberry’s campaign provided data showing Durham’s number of conviction rates has decreased. From 2021-2022, Durham had 302 felony convictions, which is about one per 1,000 adults. In 2016-2017, Durham had 619 felony convictions, which is about three per 1,000 adults.
WRAL News asked Deberry whether she considers it to be an achievement that there are fewer felony convictions in Durham than there were before she was elected district attorney.
“Out of context, I don’t know what those convictions are,” Deberry said. “What we do in Durham is we’re more focused on the most serious and violent crimes. And so, our violent crime convictions are the ones that we focus on.
“Low-level felonies, North Carolina has several different levels of felonies and on those lowest level felonies, I can’t tell what we’re doing, but I know that we are, for the most serious and violent crimes, our conviction rates hold up to any conviction rate in the state.”
Data from the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation shows criminal offenses decreased in Durham by 3% in 2022 compared to 2021. Raleigh’s increased 7% and Greensboro increased 3%.
The state date also showed a yearly violent crime rate gradually increased the past five years in Wake County to 283 violent crimes in 2022. In Durham County, it has decreased in the past three years. Durham County had 642 violent crimes in 2022.
However, Wake County has about 1,175,021 people as of July 2022, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Durham County has 332,680 people.
“We, in Durham, are working really hard around our violent crime as our community changes,” Deberry said. “There are hundreds of people in our community who are working to improve the lives of our most vulnerable citizens, which is why we end up with crime.”
Candidates vying to replace Josh Stein as NC attorney general
Several candidates are running for attorney general, including Deberry, Democratic Congressman Jeff Jackson and Republican Congressman Dan Bishop.
They’re vying to replace Attorney General Josh Stein.
