HAMPTON — The city reports that in 2017, violent and property crimes have declined.
Officials said prior to 2017, the city – like much of the nation – had seen two to three years of increases in serious crime, those reported at “Part 1 offenses” under FBI crime reporting guidelines.
Where crime is decreasing
The city said the 4 percent decrease in property crimes marked 2017 as the year with the fewest serious property crimes in more than 15 years.
In addition to that 4 percent decrease, the city also reports that violent crimes declined by 2 percent but that figure still remained above the city’s 15-year average.
“We are seeing some significant improvements in those Type 1 offenses,” Police Chief Terry Sult said.
The drop in overall crime is even larger for the first six months of 2018 vs. 2017, Sult told City Council recently.
All of that decline is in property crimes, he said, as the city continues to combat influences from national and local gangs.
The city said Hampton’s overall crime rate is in the middle of surrounding cities in Hampton Roads – higher than Virginia Beach, Chesapeake and Suffolk but lower than Newport News, Norfolk and Portsmouth.
“When you look at violent crime, we are the third safest of the seven cities. That’s moving in the right direction,” Sult said.
Sult noted that national gangs, chiefly in New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C., have influences in the region.
Regional gangs operate across city boundaries or have local affiliates. And, increasingly, females have become more involved in gang crimes, according to the city.
Hampton’s approach
The city has a two-pronged approach, battling some of the root causes that make gangs attractive to young people: low self-esteem, entrenched poverty and insufficient involvement with parents or other adults.
The city’s Office of Youth and Young Adult Opportunities coordinates programs that offer activities, employment and mentoring.
On the criminal side, Sult and other police officials noted that Hampton has a task force focused on gun crimes and gang.
Task force efforts include:
- Partnership with the commonwealth’s attorney to create strong cases for prosecution.
- Prosecuting cases of conspiracy, utilizing grand juries.
- Regional efforts to track crimes across city lines.
- Creating centralized gun crime and gang unit.
- Collaboration with federal ATF officer.
- Increased analysis of crime trends, shifting enforcement to key areas experiencing high crimes.
- Quick turnaround on ballistics and identifying guns used in repeat crimes.
- Use of fully trained auxiliary police who volunteer 12 hours a month to provide increased patrols.
The city said offenses included as violent crimes are homicides, rape, robbery and aggravated assault; property crimes are burglary, larceny and vehicle theft.
