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Violent crime at 4-year high so far

BY RAY GRONBERG : The Herald-Sun, Dec 18, 2006

DURHAM -- Violent crime in Durham is running at a four-year high, with rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults all occurring more frequently than they have at any point since 2003, Durham police said Monday.

The only bright spot in the reported 32 percent increase in violence during the first nine months of 2006 is the city's homicide count, which so far is shaping up as "the lowest total in my history as a police officer in Durham," said Deputy Police Chief Ron Hodge, a 23-year veteran of the force.

The city had 11 homicides in the first nine months of the year and has had 13 to date in 2006.

But increases in the other types of violence monitored by local, state and federal authorities are offsetting the good news on that front.

The biggest increase is in robberies, which are up 58 percent from the figures reported in the first nine months of 2005 and are being driven by a series of crimes targeting local Hispanics.

Most involve a firearm and are stick-ups of people on the street or in a parking lot, Hodge told the City Council.

"We want people to be aware of their surroundings and circumstances so they're not targets of opportunity, because [robberies are] crimes of opportunity," he added. "You need not to be out alone after dark if you can help it."

Hodge said Hispanics were the victims in 46 percent of the robberies that occurred in July, August and September. They figured in only 29 percent of the robberies reported in the three months before that.

Durham's increase "almost goes off the charts" but the percentage is high because 2005 was a good year. There were 1,103 homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault cases through the end of September last year, compared to 1,459 this year.-cut-

http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-800809.cfm

* The criminals continue to run Durham in more ways than one.