Virginia Beach experienced crime numbers similar to how they were in the 1960s, according to the 2016 Virginia Beach Police Department CompStat report.
Chief of Police James Cervera presented 2016’s crime statistics to city council at its meeting Tuesday.
“We’re about in the mid-’60s when it comes to crime rate per 1,000 population,” Cervera said. “Yes, numbers are different then what they were in the ’60s, but so is the size of the city … we think that’s great for a city this size.”
The report’s crime rate per 1,000 residents graph begins in 1960, increases in the 1970s, hits its highest point during the 1980s and begins to depress in the late 1990s. Now, crime rates in 2016 are about where they were in 1964, according to the presentation.
Between rape, robbery, homicide and aggravated assault numbers, the latter stood out to Cervera.
“What’s kind of concerning is the aggravated assault numbers this year,” Cervera said. “Twenty percent of our aggravated assault cases are by firearm, either firearm shooting or a firearm was used as a weapon. Fifteen percent were by knife, other weapons were 17 percent and the rest are what we call hands, fist and feet.”
Street robberies in the city increasingly revolve around narcotics, and are the bulk of ones the police deal with, according to Cervera.
“What’s concerning to us is that a lot of these cases are drug-related,” Cervera said. “Somebody does a hold up of another individual, basically the intention is to steal narcotics.”
Looking at the city’s arrest numbers, Cervera said the number of juvenile rapes and robberies is troubling.
“A 16-year-old kid, deep down in my heart, shouldn’t be out there doing an armed robbery or doing sexual assault,” Cervera said. “It shouldn’t happen in our society, but it does, and we work those cases and we make the arrests just as we do with adults.”
Councilwoman Jessica Abbott also expressed her concern for the number of rapes committed by juveniles in the city.
“The forcible rape number seemed a lot higher than what I could find as the national average, and according to RAINN — the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network — they said only nine percent of forcible rapes are committed by juveniles,” Abbott said.
“I’m wondering if there’s something we should be looking for in terms of conflict mitigation and maybe partnering up with the school system to see if there’s a trend for violence in younger people. That number did just feel really high to me.”
Cervera responded to Abbott’s concern and said a briefing will be provided regarding these numbers.
Looking at the city’s geography, Cervera said there are two major areas violent crimes seem to spike in.
“One is in western Bayside and the other one is in, believe it or not, the Oceanfront, specifically between 16th and 24th Street and back to the Convention Center,” Cervera said. “The Oceanfront has to do with the number of alcohol establishments … young folks and alcohol usually don’t mix very well.”
Western Bayside seems to also be a hot spot for robberies and residential burglaries, according to Cervera’s presentation. He said the city gave the police 10 additional positions and officers who graduate from the police academy in March will work in this particular area full-time as part of a community policing project.
There were 622 recorded cases of police using force in 2016 and Cervera said VBPD operates differently in this event, compared to other jurisdictions.
“Seventy-six percent of [use of force cases] were what we call contact control, or when a suspect gets handcuffed and goes to jail,” Cervera said. “I bring this up, because we are one of the few police agencies in the country where officers have to use abusive force reports if they point a weapon or they point a taser at someone.”
Of the 59 times an officer pointed a Taser at someone, they used it 19 times. Similarly, there were 60 counts of police pointing firearms at suspects and zero shots fired in 2016.
Councilman John Moss began city council comment and said the 25,066 moving violations require much paperwork.
“When we come back to budget time for those moving violations that are paper-intensive, I look forward to sharing the productivity potential that e-tickets would bring,” Moss said.
Councilwoman Barbara Heneley asked Cervera to comment on the heroin problem in the city, to which he replied the police responded to an overdose the night before.
“It’s an issue we don’t think is going to go away anytime soon,” Cervera said.
Contact Justin at [email protected].
