Data show drop in Beach crime, increase in police assaults

VIRGINIA BEACH

Virginia Beach was a safer city last year - unless you were a police officer.

The city's crime rate inched down to 31.8 crimes per 1,000 residents in 2008, the lowest figure since 1967, according to the police department's annual report released Wednesday.

But the 2008 figures also included 140 assaults against Virginia Beach police officers, 28 more than the previous year and the highest figure in at least 10 years.

"You see it across the nation. Unfortunately, people today are not hesitant about putting their hands on a police officer," Deputy Chief James Cervera said.

Or sometimes their whole body. Cervera cited a recent example of an officer whose arrest attempt was interrupted when the subject's girlfriend flung herself on the officer's back.

"It took three officers to get her off of him," Cervera said. "In the process, one of the officers was injured and will probably be out of work three months."

Many of the city's other 2008 crime statistics were much more encouraging. The 31.8 figure is a slight improvement over the 32.3 crimes per thousand residents in 2007.

Violent crimes decreased by 5.3 percent, homicides decreased by 6.2 percent, and aggravated assaults decreased by 1.4 percent.

Meanwhile, the number of rapes tumbled 33 percent from 107 in 2007 to 69 - the lowest figure since 1979.

Cervera credited a public better educated on personal safety as one of the keys to fewer rapes. But he cautioned that this is only the second straight year the figure has gone down.

"This doesn't mean it's a trend yet," he said. "If a crime statistic is going to be a trend, give it 3-5 years."

This means the increase on police officer assaults shouldn't be considered a trend, either, as it, too, has only increased the past two years. Furthermore, Cervera said the assaults against officers should be viewed in the context of the thousands of arrests and tens of thousands of tickets issued each year.

"It's just part of the nature of what we do, and part of the reason not everybody wants to be a cop," he said.

Paul White, (757) 418-1447, paul.white@pilotonline.com