VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — The Virginia Beach Police Department says it is working to stop crimes before they even take place.
Detectives are using a mapping system that shows different types of crimes in the city, where they are happening, and when. It's called the Weekly Analysis for VBPD Engagement & Strategies, or WAVES, crime mapping. Virginia Beach police leaders meet every few weeks to go over their latest data regarding crimes across the city.
This mapping system doesn't just show where the crimes are happening. Virginia Beach Police are trying to narrow down what they call "crime clusters."
Police Chief Paul Neudigate says it sometimes shows patterns, which allows them to almost predict where the next crime may happen and when.
“We’ve learned as a profession -- law enforcement has -- that just making overall arrests, an abundance of arrests... it can work, but it has short-term results," said Neudigate. "We’re focused on arresting the right people that are driving our crime conditions and focused on addressing the conditions of the locations that contribute to those crimes.”
Police track homicides, sexual assaults, robberies, and more using this system and then compare them every couple of weeks.
For example, Chief Neudigate said his detectives were investigating a series of armed robberies near one another within one of the precincts. He said investigators tracked where the robberies were happening when they took place, and who may have been involved.
“Looking at where the crimes were occurring through the data and we were able to make an arrest of about five individuals," said Neudigate. "I can tell you, we locked up the right five individuals because since we made that arrest, our robbery numbers have dropped to the bottom. We believe they were probably connected to at least a dozen robberies.”
Within 2021, Hampton Roads saw an increase in gun violence. However, gun violence was not the police department’s biggest problem in 2021. Chief Neudigate said his biggest concern is property crime and that his department saw a rise in stolen cars and even commercial robberies.
“We know what is driving crime -- the predominant amount of crime in Virginia Beach -- is motor vehicle thefts and theft out of that motor vehicle.”
He said another growing concern is what exactly people are stealing out of those cars.
“Year to date, we have had 61 firearms that have been stolen out of vehicles that were left unattended and those guns are now going into the hands of someone on the street who probably shouldn’t have them."
In their "Year to Date" analysis, Neudigate said they are reporting an increase in homicides, rapes, and robberies, but a decline in aggravated assaults. Looking at the overall numbers of violent crimes, it shows those types of crimes declined about 11% as of April 6, compared to the same time in 2021.
The police chief said the mapping system is a good tool but it takes more than just a map and a 911 call to help police connect the dots.
“The community has to be invested. The other parts of the criminal justice system have to be working," he explained. "If all of those pieces are not pulling in the right direction, we’re spinning our wheels.”