VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — The Virginia Beach Police Department is cutting down on crime by cutting the ribbon to the Department’s new 2nd Precinct Atlantic Avenue Substation.
The department is leasing the building that once housed a bar called, The Boxx. Police Chief Paul Neudigate said the police force took one of the “worst properties in the city” and turned it into something great.
He explained, the club had several problems with crime.
“What we know about The Boxx is it resulted in shootings, it resulted in fights,” Neudigate said. “We know from problem-based policing, locations can drive crime. What we had here, prior to this, was a location that not only drove crime number for the resort area, but it drove it for the city.”
The police department took over the building in 2021 to increase police presence at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront after eight people were hurt and two died in shootings that March.
“It took a tragedy for us to realize that we need to make some drastic changes and to make a plea to council that we need to invest in the resort area and inhabit a property that is driving crime down here,” Neudigate said. “And that’s what we did.”
Captain Harry McBrien said the increased police presence in the resort area is paying off; McBrien said violent crime is down in the area.
“Thirty-four percent reduction from last year to this year [overall],” McBrien said. “Violent crime down, in this area right around the substation, 50%.”
He attributed the drop in crime at the Oceanfront to the new substation along with initiatives like Shot Spotter and better collaboration with business owners.
McBrien said this new substation will go a long way in helping police officers who patrol the oceanfront.
“Officers no longer have to go back a mile work to the police main station,” McBrien said. “They do their work right here. They have access to computers and they can actually generate reports, do all their evidence vouchering, take care of business here. So that if they need to respond to a call a lot quicker, they can do that.”
Neudigate said he’s hopeful this new substation will help keep things moving in the right direction as officers continue to fight crime.
“We pay $5,000 a month for this and those are public dollars. And it is an expensive proposition. But the amount of money we were investing in just trying to maintain visibility and manage that disorder: way in excess of $5,000,” Neudigate said. “We’re not seeing the stories about the issues at the oceanfront, the way we did. I think that’s very telling.”