VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — In Tuesday's Virginia Beach city council meeting, Chief Paul Neudigate talked about all things crime, breaking down when, where and what types of crime happened in Virginia Beach last year.
The briefing detailed not only the numbers of crimes like shootings or car thefts but how they stacked up year to year. Chief Neudigate noted a decrease in overall property crime including car thefts and things stolen from cars in 2023.
He’s also concerned about the 90 shootings, 20 of them fatal, that happened last year, both are up from 2022.
“Almost half of our homicides were either domestic or negligent discharges. Where folks are mishandling their firearms and they discharge a gun and accidentally kill a friend or family member,” Chief Neudigate explained.
Chief Neudigate outlined several goals for this year including decreasing homicides, lowering the number of pedestrian accidents, and upgrading technology within the police department.
“Three goals are to get the real-time crime center up, get us all into one building, keep the violent crime down and reduce the number of shootings and homicides.”
Locals in the area feel Virginia Beach is one of the safer communities in Hampton Roads.
There were 24 homicides last year in Virginia Beach but Chief Neudigate says that’s still low compared to other cities this size.
In terms of solving those homicides, Virginia Beach reports a clearance rate of 83 percent. That’s well above the national average of just 52 percent. Neudigate also points out that Virginia Beach has the lowest homicide total when comparing it to other similar size cities.