WUNC · Will Michaels · September 8, 2026
Durham has a new police chief. Stephanie Mardis officially takes the position Tuesday after more than two decades with the Greensboro Police Department, where she rose to assistant chief.
Mardis comes to Durham as the city works to reduce gun violence, fill vacant officer positions, and expand alternatives to traditional policing.
WUNC's Will Michaels spoke with Mardis ahead of her first day on the job.
This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
I understand that you're just getting started, but what do you think the Durham Police Department does well and what do you think needs improvement?
We have state of the art technology. Our workforce is highly trained and well versed. Our biggest challenge right now is staffing. We have a vacancy rate of 20%, and so we really need to get qualified applicants into the academy, and we need to retain the officers that we have.
The latest numbers from the Durham Police Department show that 20% vacancy rate for Durham police represents more than 100 vacant positions. Does Durham really need more than 500 police officers, or should you as the next chief, reconsider what sworn officers should do on the job?
So that's a yes and a no. We do need to fill the vacancies because we know that the projections of of the population of the city of Durham will increase exponentially and so we really need those frontline officers to answer those 911 calls, But I also believe that there's space to reevaluate how we manage the personnel that we have, and that's, supplementing and accompanying the sworn officers with professional staff that are subject matter experts in their own right.
You spoke just a moment ago about Durham police being a high-tech police department. When I think high-tech, I think often of surveillance. There's a robust conversation going on in many communities about Flock cameras and whether they are there for public safety or whether they intrude on people's reasonable expectation of privacy. Where do you draw the line between the interest of public safety when it comes to surveillance and whether or not constitutional rights might be violated?
I believe that any technology that's utilized by any government agency, there needs to be oversight and that access to that needs to be structured. But I do believe that any law enforcement agency in the 21st century, leveraging technology is not a luxury, it's a necessity. Looking at the staffing shortages that we have, we have to be able to leverage that technology - once again in a responsible way - to be able to respond to active, scenes or active crime, to get more intel for the safety of the officer, so we can respond in a more responsible way.
A year from now, what should the city council or Durham residents measure to evaluate the job that you're doing?
Well, hopefully we will see a dip in the crime rates, but the qualitative measures matter as well. Does the community feel like they actually have a voice? Do they feel like they are part of a plan that's working and are they seeing tangible results in their neighborhoods Do they feel safer going outside? Do they allow their kids to play in the neighborhoods?
So within a year, I would love to see a reduction of violent gun crime. I would love to see priority offenders embracing the support and the services that will be offered to them, like community-based outreach, behavioral training, trauma informed care. We're gonna identify those individuals who are causing the most harm and try to get to the root cause of that. And if those offenders are not amenable to the support and help and the services that are provided to stop the behavior that's the most harmful to those communities, then I would like to see successful prosecution.