NORFOLK, Va. – The latest efforts to address crime in the City of Norfolk are outlined in a 13-page document.
Police said there have 61 homicides so far this year. That’s a slight increase to the 58 homicides this same time last year.
Interim Police Chief Mike Goldsmith said curbing the crime can’t fall on police alone. He said it’s a community effort.
“What we’re trying to do is look at the issues the city’s facing right now and doing it in a very holistic manner,” he said.
The crime-fighting report includes community engagement, building relationships and educating people on how to make businesses and neighborhoods safer.
“Disorder and crime tend to follow one another,” Goldsmith said. “If we start to concentrate on making sure the neighborhoods are well maintained, making sure neighborhoods have the appropriate amount of capacity to do things they can do on their own, contributes to public safety. I.e., getting to know their neighbors; keeping their property up; making sure the grass is cut. The things that make a place less attractive to the criminal element, that’s one non-law enforcement way that we can make a neighborhood safer.”
Money has been set aside to hire more staff next year to ramp up efforts to enforce code violations at bars and restaurants downtown. The efforts will focus on restaurants, nightclubs, short-term rental lodging and other businesses.
The city has already beefed up police patrols downtown and added security cameras on Granby Street. But the chief said they don't know yet if the cameras are stopping crime.
“Cameras help us in that they give us eyes on the street and they allow to collect evidence if a crime occurs,” said Goldsmith. “Whether they have any deterrent effect or not, I don’t think we’ve been able to determine yet. What we’re really focusing on is trying to build a safe ecosystem on Granby Street.”
City leaders also plan to purchase an automatic license plate reader system by the end of the year. They say the cameras will help police collect evidence in crimes. The police chief said the city is hoping to install them at the start of the new year.
City leaders are moving forward with the Newark Community Street Team. The New Jersey-based program employs residents in the community to act as mentors and reduce violence. The resident-run organization focuses on intervention strategies by reaching out to at-risk teens and work to resolve conflicts.
The city is also funneling more money to the grassroots groups to get more boots on the ground. Police will continue to work with federal and state partners to put more criminals behind bars.
Goldsmith said, however, the problems won’t be solved overnight and could take months to see if it’s working.
“This is not a race you win,” he said. “It is something you continue to do day in, day out, month and month out, year in, year out. You constantly assess where you’re at, whether your methodologies are working, whether they are doing the things you need it to do. In that assessment, if you find something’s not working, you put it aside and then you go find something else.”
According to the police chief, the department is being stretched thin. They’re down 227 officers but are slowly working to hire more.
