Virginia Beach seeing drop in homicides, other violent crime so far in 2024

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — Virginia Beach has seen a significant drop in homicides and other violent crime so far this year compared to 2023.

Virginia Beach Paul Chief Paul Neudigate shared that update with Virginia Beach City Council on Tuesday.

He says the city’s seen 10 homicides so far in 2024, well below the 22 homicides at the same time last year, and overall violent crime is down 16% compared to the city’s average for the last three years.

That includes a more than 50% drop in total shooting victims (31) compared to this time last year (67).

Neudigate credits teamwork between his department other entities like the city’s commonwealth’s attorney’s office, and new technology like Flock cameras, a controversial system of license plate readers. He emphasized that the system helped lead to the recent arrest of a homicide suspect in Portsmouth.

“Those Flock cameras, the ability to track that vehicle, out of the beach into other municipalities … made all the different in the timeliness of that arrest,” Neudigate said.

Neudigate also thanked council’s actions in recent years, like the implementation of a step plan for public safety employees.

“So that we can continue to recruit and attract to what is absolutely the best police department, not [only] in Hampton Roads, not [only] in the Commonwealth of Virginia, but one of the national models across this country,” Neudigate said. “You’ve invested in our officers, you’ve invested in our technology, and I think the team thanks you for that.”

Some crimes though are up slightly in 2024, like thefts from big box stores like Target and Wal-Mart, as well as Virginia ABC stores. Neudigate says there have also been many burglaries at vape stores in the city.

Neudigate pointed out the figures this year came after Virginia Beach saw comparatively strong numbers against cities of similar size in 2023, with 5.3 homicides per 100,000 residents in 2023. The stats led to Virginia Beach recently being named one of the safest cities of its size.

Virginia Beach’s crime reductions come as cities across the U.S. report a continued overall downward trend in violent crime in recent years , after a spike during the earlier part of the pandemic. Norfolk’s police chief recently shared that crime in the Mermaid City is about 10% compared to 2023 , with a non-fatal shooting down 50% compared to last year.

You can watch Neudigate’s full briefing here.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WAVY.com.