Rockingham County Sees Decline in Violent Crime Using Data-Driven Focused Deterrence Approach

Our partners with Project Safe Rockingham County recently reported a 20% decrease in armed robberies, which were up slightly a year ago. By using data to drive the focused deterrence strategy and direct it toward offenders known to be engaged in armed robbery in Rockingham County, the County has successfully lowered the number of armed robberies occurring in the County. In addition, armed robberies are one of four violent offenses reported in the State Bureau of Investigation’s violent crime index. Since focused deterrence work began in Rockingham County in 2010 in partnership with the North Carolina Network for Safe Communities, the County has experienced a nearly 20% reduction in violent crime. Project Safe Rockingham County has an advisory board with representatives from each of the six local law enforcement agencies in the county, the district attorney’s office, and members of the community who meet regularly to discuss the strategy. The site coordinator, Guilio Dattero, oversees the day-to-day operations behind the strategy. Project Safe Rockingham County has become an exceptional model of how to implement and sustain the focused deterrence strategy in the State of North Carolina and has done an outstanding job showcasing the outcomes of the effort through media outlets.

The full article written about the Project Safe Rockingham County initiative can be found here: Sept 2014 PSRC article.