daniel meier

Daniel Meier is a 2002 graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill School of Law and has extensive experience working primarily in the area of criminal law. If elected to the City Council, Daniel will serve all of the residents and visitors to Durham. His number one priority is to make Durham a safe and prosperous city for all of its residents. 

www.meierfordurham.com
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why you should vote for daniel meier


​Over the past year, our community has felt a divisiveness, a rift between those who support our Police Chief and those who support focusing on initiatives to combat the underlying causes of crime. Residents who understand that there is a place for both and who would like to see an organized plan that would 1) ensure public safety and 2) work on those initiatives are usually left out of the conversation. Sure, they are given their moments to speak at public hearings, but that is simply pretense. Some minds are usually made up already, and even compromise isn't given due consideration.

To support those already-chosen positions, selected statistics are used, and limited acknowledgement is given to residents who would like to see more community engagement with our law enforcement community. A request for police department funding is frequently equated with over policing, harassment, and racial profiling, when we know that those are organizational and community cultural issues that can be present regardless of the amount of funding or the number of officers that work in a police department. Consequently, now is the time to have a voice of reason and a person who brings to the council experience in understanding both sides of the issue.

Daniel Meier has represented many of our Durham residents who have been accused of committing crimes. He has listened to defendants talk about the struggles they've faced and how they've sometimes made choices because those were the only choices they felt they could make. On the other hand, Daniel's wife is a police officer, and so he understands the importance of training, funding, and relationship building. He knows that the Durham law enforcement community needs to continue to build trust with residents and treat all residents with respect.

When you examine the makeup of the current Council, the experience and knowledge that exists, and what we are missing, you can't help but see that Daniel would bring a unique experience and a vital perspective that is currently missing. No one else on the Council or running for a Council seat can speak to the public safety and community engagement aspects of the law enforcement community like Daniel can. There is a strength that we bring to our community when we go beyond evaluating our challenges from a monolithic viewpoint and have discussions that include the many voices of Durham that now feel left out.

It's time for Durham to be the inclusive community that it claims to be and to stop listening to only the loudest voices. It's time to bring experience and knowledge back to the Durham City Council. So, just as the Friends of Durham supported and endorsed Daniel Meier during the primary, we, again, support and wholeheartedly endorse Daniel Meier for the November 5th Durham City Council General Election.
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read the press

Excerpt from The 9th Street Journal (9thstreetjournal.org)
Article by Michaela Towfighi
October 25, 2019

Michaela Towfighi captured the essence of Daniel Meier and his bid for City Council stating...

"Despite decreasing in recent years, violent crime in Durham increased in 2019, with 35 homicides in the last nine months. The second-quarter crime report released by police chief C.J. Davis revealed a 16% increase in violent crime within the first six months of this year compared to 2018.

Daniel Meier explains his thinking at Inter-Neighborhood Council’s candidates forum at city hall last week. 'There are three components to crime: ability, opportunity, and desire. Everyone has the ability to commit a crime so you can never do anything with that. You need to take away the opportunity to do crime,” said Meier, who studied law at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.'