VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — Virginia Beach has seen a significant drop in homicides and other violent crime so far this year compared to 2023.
Virginia Beach Paul Chief Paul Neudigate shared that update with Virginia Beach City Council on Tuesday.
He says the city’s seen 10 homicides so far in 2024, well below the 22 homicides at the same time last year, and overall violent crime is down 16% compared to the city’s average for the last three years.
That includes a more than 50% drop in total shooting victims (31) compared to this time last year (67).
Neudigate credits teamwork between his department other entities like the city’s commonwealth’s attorney’s office, and new technology like Flock cameras, a controversial system of license plate readers. He emphasized that the system helped lead to the recent arrest of a homicide suspect in Portsmouth. …