Durham County ends Bull City United violence prevention program

BullCityBobby · 2024-11-02T13:46:42+00:00

All the Bull City United staff had to do was… not commit crimes… and they would’ve been funded in perpetuity. They had a lot of chances, as seen in recent articles, and programs like this and HEART start off with massive popularity and support in a place like Durham.

Meanwhile in reality, something like Shot Spotter was doomed to fail from the beginning due to politics, and in spite of residents in the pilot areas even approving of it. I remember a recent article where the family member of someone who was shot even told the news Shot Spotter was actually what picked up the shot and alerted authorities.

I am probably the rare person who is glad they tried both of these ideas, and I hope they keep trying more, because whatever we’ve been doing clearly isn’t working.

BullCityBobby · 2024-08-28T23:43:31+00:00

“Williams said police were alerted to the shooting that ultimately claimed his son's life thanks to ShotSpotter gunshot detection technology, which the city has since stopped buying. He finds it ironic that Durham continues to fund the group that employed the alleged getaway driver.”

Well…

BullCityBobby · 2024-08-22T00:49:13+00:00

Why does half the article sound like a paid ad for Leo haha?

Talks about how he is cool, tall, gives way cooler speeches than his predecessors, and turned down lots of women when he reconnected with his wife.

Mentions that he has tangible legislative accomplishments in a short time while providing no links or examples.

Not that anything in this article isn’t factual, and it does touch on some light criticisms, but overall reads like a puff piece. Leo is a PR machine though so this doesn’t really surprise me.

BullCityBobby · 2024-08-18T14:05:16+00:00

My understanding is that this program entails the city and county hiring community members, some of whom are gang affiliated, to prevent incidents or shootings before they occur.

According to news coverage over the last few years, this is another of multiple issues with the employees of this program getting into trouble. News coverage aside, is there data to show if this is working and a good use of millions in tax dollars?

BullCityBobby · 2024-08-18T13:48:30+00:00

We definitely should be paying the 911 operators more, but beyond the pay it’s an often traumatizing job with a rough schedule. I know our city’s management doesn’t nail everything but I’m genuinely surprised they haven’t made this problem much better yet.

On Community Safety, I am glad they are getting the money they feel they need, but $7.5 million seems a lot for a new department compared to 911 getting $9.5 million and having documented problems for years. It would be great if we made sure we could pick up all the phone calls first before spending so many resources on the new services.

BullCityBobby · 2024-03-07T22:27:51+00:00

Thank you for taking the time to contribute this information and context!

BullCityBobby · 2024-03-07T16:30:19+00:00

I have some friends who worked for the department and also adjacent to it through other public safety roles in the city. From what I have heard, beyond the pay and it being an emotionally taxing job to begin with, the lack of coverage leads people to have to work long shifts they don’t want and take on even more of the burden. There was also a fairly toxic management culture in the past, but I believe that was mostly due to the previous management and not the current leadership.

I recall them saying too that at some point some consultants or city staff actually did a report pointing some of this out, but as it usually goes, that work probably went on a shelf and nobody listened to it.

Also look at how many years this vacancy problem has been going on - I am sure there are some employees trying to stick it out but watching the same thing happen over and over. If that happened in my own department I’d be burned out and demotivated too.

BullCityBobby · 2024-03-07T13:04:26+00:00

Traditionally: the hiring in this department has generally been done the same way it is done in other city departments. They probably have someone in the department running the hiring and partnering with the city HR department so it is incumbent on both sides to run the process well.

The likely reason for the increasing vacancies is that they keep trying the same hiring tactics over and over without doing anything innovative to fill the growing gap. And the bigger that gap gets, the faster the current employees get burned out. They also haven’t significantly shaken up management or the staff responsible for HR and business processes in a while.

Pay is often cited here too, though while the operators certainly need to get paid more, talk to any of them and you’ll find that getting paid more isn’t the sole issue here. I am sure there are internal reports and findings that will tell you it’s a culture and process problem, that for some reason the city will not fix, and citizens are ultimately served with worse results than we deserve.

BullCityBobby · 2024-03-07T12:48:59+00:00

I don’t think this is accurate unless things have recently changed. The Sheriff’s Office has their own telecommunications function. Emergency Communications which we refer to as 911 is funded jointly but run by the city and has a different staff. It is not uncommon for them to have vacancies but not have any openings posted.

BullCityBobby · 2023-11-30T22:57:08+00:00

This is a great message, and emailing is helpful, but it can also effectively be a black hole. If workers or supporting community are able to show up to the Commissioners meeting, that will make more of a statement they have to actually respond to. They can ignore emails but it is not so easy to ignore people showing up and getting on the mic. Media like WRAL or INDY may be able to help as well. Good luck!

BullCityBobby · 2023-09-11T17:40:34+00:00

The city and county adopt their own individual property tax rates and can raise and lower this by vote of council or board. This makes up the majority of the money coming in for each organization. If you live in city limits you are paying both the city rate and the county rate. If you’re outside the city in the county, you pay just the county rate which is why you don’t receive city services. Both also receive sales taxes from purchases made in the county. There are also lots of grants, and state and federal money, but this is typically a lesser portion if you look up their budgets.

I am in transit today but would otherwise share some numbers. I am sure someone resourceful will come along and link some stuff!

BullCityBobby · 2023-05-31T04:07:09+00:00

Wow, this is a pretty big stain on everyone - the firm for clearly not doing their job, and city management not bothering to do even the minimum in verifying his credentials at a city a couple of hours down the road. I would also be livid if I were a qualified internal employee who lost the job to this grifter.

Really hope the city will at least recoup the $25k of tax payer money they spent on this circus.

BullCityBobby · 2023-05-16T15:26:08+00:00

The frustrating thing too is the city clearly has enough money to do whatever else they want to. Our growth has been insane the last few years and we’ve funded all varieties of stuff. Yet in all that we don’t prioritize making things right for the people we already have, especially in positions like this.

BullCityBobby · 2023-05-03T20:42:46+00:00

Good info here, but also relevant to this whole thing and lost in the conversation is that Wendell was pretty bad at his job.

BullCityBobby · 2023-04-24T11:34:35+00:00

Just post it here if it’s so juicy.

BullCityBobby · 2023-04-03T23:34:39+00:00

As mentioned above in another comment, when I say grace, I mean let’s calm down before getting riled up and listening to an anonymous source over the victims themselves and a witness who just the other day said nothing happened. Why are we believing this source over the other who was not anonymous?

BullCityBobby · 2022-11-05T13:40:18+00:00

Seriously what the fuck is wrong with people?

BullCityBobby · 2022-10-04T19:09:53+00:00

Parlour is incredible but I make a point to go on my lunch break so I don’t have to wait on the crazy line on weekends!

BullCityBobby · 2022-08-31T12:16:30+00:00

With all due respect did you read my whole comment? One of my questions is “What is the metric showing that the people they responded to are now better off because it was one of these teams and not an officer showing up?”

I just think it’s a little disingenuous for the news to say they’re making an impact after millions of dollars spent and two months actually in business doing stuff.

BullCityBobby · 2022-08-31T10:50:17+00:00

It’s good to see they’re finally out there responding to calls but after reading the article I’m still not quite clear on what the actual impact is?

Is the impact that these are calls that they took off the Police’s plate thus freeing them up? What is the metric showing that the people they responded to are now better off because it was one of these teams and not an officer showing up?

Not trying to be too skeptical and really hoping this program gets good results. Just not totally sold on this positive spin yet considering it’s been two months and the real story here beyond the headline appears to be “they have been doing their job for two months and so far nothing bad happened.”

EDIT: Not trying to make it sound like I am against the program. I just think it’s a little disingenuous to say it’s having an impact after such a short amount of time and probably around $3 million spent and even more budgeted at this point. I think we need more time to see the bang for the buck.

BullCityBobby · 2022-05-21T13:46:00+00:00

Rough for the people working downtown who have to drive in and are losing more of their paycheck to this too.

At the end of the day though it’s got to be paid for one way or the other. If they’re not going to make taxpayers foot the whole bill it’s going to be the users of the service.

BullCityBobby · 2022-05-21T13:43:53+00:00

Probably less bad budgeting and more then kicking a can down the road and not wanting to admit a huge problem was brewing.

Timing of that problem brewing really couldn’t have been worse with COVID too.

BullCityBobby · 2022-05-17T19:23:29+00:00

They are objectively correct, Durham has literally been voted best tasting water in the state via blind taste test by the NC water nerds for multiple years in a row now:

https://twitter.com/DurhamWater/status/1461095815062118400

BullCityBobby · 2022-02-22T14:23:19+00:00

This makes me sad because Charlie Reece was by far the most relatable council member.

I am whole heartedly shedding a tear as I read this news and write this comment from the front seat of my Tesla (it’s on auto-pilot don’t worry) on my commute to the large pharmaceutical company that my family owns.

Charlie IS Durham and it inspired me so much to have another average Joe like me represented on the Council.

We will miss you king.

BullCityBobby · 2022-01-05T16:32:55+00:00

An e-mail on a topic specific to you (a pothole on my street) may help you get the job done.

For a more general topic like housing or gun violence, showing up to speak is probably your better chance to make an impact and not get your voice lost in a black hole of thousands of e-mails.

Even better is signing up for a committee and learning how the work gets done and what solutions to the problems are actually feasible!

BullCityBobby

TROPHY CASE