VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — News 3 is getting an in-depth look at crime trends in Virginia's most populous city.
Tuesday, Virginia Beach Police Chief Paul Neudigate unveiled how the city fared when it comes to violent crime and property crime, like stolen cars, in 2022.
VBPD 2022 Year End Stats by WTKR on Scribd
Chief Neudigate said, in 2022, violent crime accounted for more than 5 percent of the city’s total reported crime.
While the number of criminal homicides went up last year, compared with 2021, the total violent crime went down, the chief said.
“The best numbers in five years for violent crime for the City of Virginia Beach, that doesn’t happen by accident,” Neudigate said.
Neudigate said overall violent crime in Virginia Beach in 2022 was down more than 12 percent compared to 2021 and dropped more than 20 percent compared to 2018.
In addition, the number of total shooting victims was down more than 14 percent compared to 2021.
When it comes to firearms recovered, officers took in more than 1,600 firearms in 2022, more than 32 percent from the year prior.
“There’s no doubt that the precursor to shooting violence are felons in possession of firearms. It’s a matter of time before they use those at a criminal offense,” Neudigate told News 3. “We want to identify those individuals, remove those firearms, charge them, and hold them accountable before they pull the trigger on someone.”
The city's top cop said these positive crime trends stem in part from people speaking up and more technology, including gunshot detection and ballistic tracing systems.
READ MORE: Virginia Beach Police deploy technology to pinpoint location of gunshots in Oceanfront area
“We have implemented a very evidenced-based data-driven, laser-focused approach,” Neudigate said.
In 2022, the city saw 23 homicides in total.
According to VBPD data, that’s lower than other similarly sized cities across the nation for 2022, including Raleigh, Minneapolis, and Atlanta.
As for the number of homicides in 2022, that number was up more than 53 percent compared with 2021.
The number one motive in 2022 behind homicides in the City of Virginia Beach was drugs. Neudigate said the vast majority of those drug motives dealt with marijuana.
“We have people losing their lives over low-level marijuana sales,” he said. “We’re looking for some guidance as the law enforcement profession, from the General Assembly, to provide some guidance around what this means or educate the community.”
Meanwhile, property crime in total went up nearly 12 percent. More specifically, vehicle thefts went up nearly 13 percent in 2022 compared with 2021.
Neudigate said, when it comes to stolen cars in the city, their data shows that about 40 percent of the time it involves a key fob being left inside.
“The vehicles aren’t just stolen, but then they’re used for robberies, shootings, homicides, so your vehicle is out there and can be put into and used for one of these crimes,” Neudigate said.
This year, Neudigate’s challenge for residents is to help curb the number of stolen cars as Virginia Beach Police look to continue curbing crime in 2023.
Chief Neudigate also told News 3, so far in 2023, there have been four homicides in Virginia Beach.
Neudigate added that two of those were marijuana-related incidents.
