In Durham, several city departments are still understaffed.

Numbers released to the INDY in response to a public records request, originally filed in October 2023 and refiled in August 2024, show vacancies by department across the City of Durham. While the city initially declined to share vacancy numbers by department, released numbers dated to September 1, 2024, show a citywide vacancy rate of 16.44 percent, with 459 of the city’s 2,816 positions sitting empty. 

The highest vacancy percentage belongs to the Emergency Communications Department, where over a third of the department’s 80 positions are unfilled. Department director Randy Beeman says that while the vacancy rate is high compared to that in other city departments, the intensity of the work is a barrier to recruitment, and the department is all-hands-on-deck with recruiting. 

“It is very hard work. It is the nature of the work,” Beeman says. “We are very diligent and very focused on recruitment and training in support of reducing our vacancies.”

The Durham Police Department has one of the highest vacancy rates as well, with nearly 30 percent of positions, 198 of 676, sitting empty. Vacancies in the police department have drawn attention from local media, with the city council voting earlier this year to raise pay for police officers in an effort to bolster recruitment. Durham is also known for its alternative approaches to policing, notably its growing HEART program, which falls under the Community Safety Department. That department reported two vacancies out of 47 positions. 

Some of Durham’s smaller departments are fully staffed, such as the City Attorney’s Office (13 positions) and the City Clerk’s Office (eight positions). The largest departments with a vacancy rate below 10 percent are Parks and Recreation (10 of 136 positions open), and Solid Waste (seven of 120 positions open). 

Mayor Leonardo Williams says there are fewer vacancies currently than in past years, and he cites factors including the pandemic, the “Defund the Police movement,” and past protests over worker pay as reasons for low staffing in the past.

“It was bad, and it’s gotten better,” Williams says. “If you look at the data over the last 10 years, you’ll see it’ll be up, it’ll take a significant dip, and then you’ll see changes made—and you’ll see it started to creep back up.”

The INDY was unable to verify Williams’s claim. The INDY filed another request with the city following its interview with Williams and was told again that vacancy numbers for prior years remained unavailable.

The full departmental vacancy list is as follows: 

Cy Neff currently reports on Wyoming politics for USA Today and can be found on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @cyneffnews. Comment on this story at [email protected].