NORFOLK, Va. — In a meeting Tuesday, Norfolk City Council members were briefed on crime and public safety in the city last year which shows a promising trend.
Norfolk Police Chief Mark Talbot presented new numbers from 2023, reporting crime trended down about 23%, overall.
When it comes to homicides, Chief Talbot said those are down 33%. The department investigated 42 in 2023, compared to 63 in 2022.
He also mentioned their homicide clearance rate, meaning how many they’re able to solve, is well above the national average
Meanwhile, aggravated assaults, non-fatal shootings, and stolen vehicles also dropped.
Talbot credits a lot of that with the new technology like the FLOCK camera systems and their real-time crime center.
Talbot is hopeful that the trend will continue into 2024.
"If there is anything worthy happening here, and you can even look at many of our neighboring cities, is the magnitude of our crime reduction this year. We are most certainly trending in a much more positive direction than most urban environments," he said.
Chief Talbot noted his department is still down 74 officers, saying that increasing staffing is another goal for 2024.
Talbot on police and security guard shooting
When asked, Talbot also touched on the police shooting from last week when an officer and a security guard shot a man who allegedly approached them with a knife. The man, later confirmed to be 31-year-old Gary Solomon, was taken to a hospital where he ultimately died.
Talbot said a non-lethal approach was not an option in this case.
"It absolutely wasn’t an option other than the option that was utilized that was available unfortunately," he explained. "When somebody is trying to kill you, you have to respond in a way that’s going to stop the threat."