RICHMOND, Va. -- Through the first sixth months of 2023 violent crime in the city of Richmond is trending down, while property crime is on the rise -- driving an overall increase to major crimes by 7%.
Richmond Police Department Chief Rick Edwards provided the details and how the department is addressing them in a briefing to reporters on Thursday.
Edwards said among the violent crime (down 8% overall) categories trending down (compared to the first six months in 2022) are aggravated assaults (-16%) and robberies of people (-4%).
However, rapes (17%) and murders (13%) are increasing. On the latter point, Edwards said RPD investigators have a 70% clearance rate on homicides, above the national average.
He added while commercial robberies are still increasing, it is trending in the right direction.
"If you remember from my last briefing, we were up really significantly for the first quarter in robbery - commercials. We had 25 of them, there was a 125% increase over the same period last year," said Edwards. "It's still a significant concern. Our detectives are making progress on the cases and we've made some significant arrests."
As for property crimes, overall they are up 9%, but have seen decreases in areas of arson, burglaries, and theft of car parts -- especially when it comes to catalytic converter thefts.
"We saw 57% reduction…big numbers," said Edwards, who created a number of reasons for the change. "The Midas partnership, which is still available if you want to have your catalytic converter painted…We've had a great response from you guys in the media pushing that message out there. And we made some significant key or key arrests."
He also pointed to new laws that went into effect on July 1 that help law enforcement.
Among the property crime issues going up is shoplifting, with over half of the targets being ABC stores.
"It's a problem that we're seeing around the Commonwealth. When I talk to chiefs of police throughout the entire Commonwealth, they're saying the same thing," said Edwards. "Some of the strategies that we're employing is we're putting these pictures of our thieves on our social media platforms. We've gotten some good feedback from the community trying to identify these individuals and we're going to charge them every time we can catch them…We also have operations for this last quarter, We worked eight times with law enforcement arm of ABC, where we have officers standing by watching cameras, doing physical surveillance -- when a shoplifting takes place, they go and make those arrests."
Edwards said they are also seeing a continue increase in thefts from cars (mostly in areas where the population is increasing like Manchester and south side) and thefts of car -- with the Kia and Hyundai cars a part of a viral social media trend being among the big targets. On that latter issue, Edwards says the department has issued wheel locks (or clubs) to their various precincts and if you own one of those cars, you can get one for free.
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Talking with Richmonders on how they feel about crime in the city, their experiences varied.
"I feel like police enforcement has increased and has done a better job, at least in the areas that I spend my time in," said Felipe, who has lived in the city for 4.5-years. "I used to live off Chamberlayne Avenue and when I first moved there, I felt like there was a lot of suspicious activity going on on a consistent basis. I see it very reduced now. I don't know if because the houses have been remodeled in that area. So, it just naturally tends to bring more attention to the area and just, I guess, trying to make a safer place to live in."
Meanwhile, others expressed concerns about ongoing gun violence in the city -- especially among young people driven by beefs on social media.
"With Instagram, Facebook. Society now, they don't -- young people growing up -- they don't have respect for other people, nor our lives, anything. It's all about the likes, shares, and checks," said Donielle Keel, who has lived in the city her entire life. "I don't think it can be stopped because everybody have a phone. The only thing you have to do is record just like we're doing now."
Edwards did express concerns about that issue during the briefing and said while non-fatal shootings are down (-15%), the number of juvenile victims is increasing (from 12 to 14). He added they have several initiatives to address youth violence including Operation Safe Summer which aims to get guns and perpetrators off the street and give kids safe places to hang out when they are out of school.
He said they also partner with the school system to help keep tabs on issues starting online.
"It's hard for us to determine what we've actually stopped. But, we know if we're seeing some of these videos where people are threatening each other online and our detectives go out there with their [Virginia State Police] trooper partners and stop that person and find that specific gun and make that arrest -- who knows what we stopped. So, I think every time we're able to do that we can we can count that as a win."
Edwards added some of statistics of concern overlapped at times: accidental shootings and guns stolen from cars.
On the latter, he said they have increased 19%. On the former, Edwards said while eight adults were accidentally shot (by themselves or others) in all of 2022, six months into 2023 nine adults and six juveniles have been shot -- including Marquan Mitchell-Nash, 13, who was killed in March when by a gun stolen from a car.
"Those are totally preventable statistics and they affect people and ruin lives. And it's something we have to talk about," said Edwards.
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Among the ways to address that, he said, are through a program where they provide gun safes to legal owners and hosting gun buybacks for those who no longer want their firearms -- with the next one scheduled for August 12.
And related to all the programs and initiatives Edwards said they are nothing without officers to implement them and they are seeing those numbers trend in the right direction.
"We've had a 74% increase in our applicants compared to [last year six months in]. We've hired 10 former RPD officers back this this year, we have 15 part-time sworn in-background. So, that's something we're excited about. Hopefully within a few weeks we'll get those officers back. Our current academy class is set to graduate Aug. 10. And then, shortly after that, we're going to start another one. So, we're really excited about building back our numbers," said Edwards.
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