Mirroring a national trend, violent crime fell last year in Virginia Beach, Portsmouth and Suffolk, according to statistics from the FBI.
Chesapeake and Norfolk saw modest increases in violent crime, which includes murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault.
In Hampton Roads, Suffolk had the biggest drop, almost 16 percent, in violent crime from 2006 to 2007. Virginia Beach's numbers fell more than 13 percent and Portsmouth's almost 8 percent. Statewide, violent crime dipped 3 percent. Nationally, it was down 0.7 percent, the statistics show.
Jim Cervera, Virginia Beach Deputy Police Chief, cautioned about reading too much into annual crime statistics. He compared it to watching the stock market daily.
"Don't get me wrong; we're happy," he said. "But the real bottom line is we want to look at these things on a multiyear basis."
Suffolk officials attributed the drop to residents getting more involved.
"Suffolk is very fortunate," spokeswoman Debbie George said in an e-mail, "in that our citizens have taken ownership and personal responsibility and are working with law enforcement for the betterment of our City."
Donald Smith, a criminal justice professor at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, agreed.
"The kind of variations you see in those kinds of numbers are sort of random at this point," he said. "It's reassuring but doesn't mean a lot."
Still, Cervera noted that the Beach's drop in robberies - from 678 to 555 - might be related to the department's better-than-average clearance rate of 39 percent for the crime last year.
"We took those people off the street," he said.
Norfolk had the region's biggest spike in violent crime, with increases in homicides and aggravated assaults driving the rise of more than 4 percent. Homicides jumped to 48 from 28 between 2006 and 2007.
"We are, for better or worse, the urban type of city for this area, and so we have problems that are unique to those type of settings," said Chris Amos, Norfolk Police Department spokesman.
Chesapeake had an almost 2-percent jump in violent crime, led by increases in rapes and robberies.
Property crimes - burglary, larceny, car theft and arson - increased in Chesapeake and Virginia Beach, while Norfolk saw its rate fall. Portsmouth and Suffolk's rates were about flat.
Norfolk's Amos said homicides are down this year but warned that the city will see an increase in property crimes, driven largely by an increase in car break-ins.
ODU's Smith, whose car was stolen last week, predicted that the sour economy will lead to an increase in crime.
"The economic system," he said, "is bad news for property crime."
Aaron Applegate, (757) 222-5122, aaron.applegate@pilotonline.com
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RE: coincidence
" Number of concealed carry permits up
- Number of violent crimes down
Coincidence? I think not."
Pleas let us all know when you found that information.
Coincidence?
- Number of concealed carry permits up
- Number of violent crimes down
Coincidence? I think not.
Norfolk needs to wake up
Norfolk doesn't pay its police well compared to some cities. Many have gone to other cities, including Virginia Beach. I notice Va. Beach violent crimes are down. You do the math.
Practice Makes Perfect
"Even a "modest" increase in Norfolk's crime is too much. What's the problem here?"
Could it be that Norfolk criminals need more target practice?
Keep in Mind...
...these percentage changes ONLY reflect the percentage change in the NUMBER of offenses. A better measure is to look at the percent change in the rate, or rate of offenses per 100,000 persons.
For example the article shows that overall violent crime in Norfolk increased around 4% but using the rate we see that the overall violent crime actually increased about 7.25% (787 violent crimes per 100k in 2006 vs. 844 violent crimes per 100k in 2007). Crime went up while the population went down...this is more telling in my opinion.
Scott
not reading article
is sadly a common occurance on any message board. Even a "modest" increase in Norfolk's crime is too much. What's the problem here?
Suffolk . . .
What is not clear to me is . . . do we figure out the crime stats *per capita* (i.e., the rate went down because a whole lot more people live in Suffolk now than did a year ago) or based on actual number of violent crimes? I would love to read this as good news for Suffolk, turning the corner on some of the violent crime downtown, but I wonder whether it doesn't rather reflect all of the safe enclaves of North Suffolk, where new buyers keep moving in every day. Cheers, MGM
Oh dopey me
In the original (shorter) article, I totally missed the mention of Norfolk. So much for the quality of that Evelyn Wood speed-reading course!
The Real Bad News?
It's the judges our elected officials appoint. Most of the judges (not all) appointed care more about being pals with the criminal defense bar. They go to breakfast and lunch with them and then hear their cases. They are out of touch with the public as they are given so much power that few have the character or intellect to properly use for the good of the community. Until that changes, crime is going to continue to be a problem,
Because this is a certainty - the community responsible for most violent crime isn't going to change. They refuse to take advantage of the educational system in place. Fathers and mothers indiscriminately procreate without concept of the notion of taking responsibility for their actions. They expect society to take care of them.
? ? ?
JohnJan:
Did you read the same article? Norfolk was mentioned several times.
Criminals Policing Themselves
Maybe crime is down in Suffolk because all the violent criminals have killed themselves off. Keep up the good work fellows.
please reread the article...
what are you talking about john whoever?...the article unfortuntately does mention norfolk and it isn't great publicity!...work harder norfolk!
There are 3 kinds of lies
Lies. Damned lies. And statistics. Mark Twain said that and he was right. Don't get too happy because one report says something like this. Is it good? Yes. Does it indicate a trend? Hardly. Let's give it a few years before we decide all is well and start firing the cops.
Funny why Norfolk isn't mentioned
Could it be that violent crime in Norfolk is up?