Police revamp focus in sectors
Operation Safe Hampton bolsters response teams
HAMPTON — Hampton homicides are trending downward compared to the same period last year, but aggravated assaults are up, among the reasons why the division has revamped its community policing programs.
Dubbed Operation Safe Hampton, it creates new community response teams that will focus on the city’s two sectors — Wythe and Chesapeake — drawing officers from various units who will report to one commander. It will focus on crime hot spots, zero-in on known offenders and increase traffic enforcement. Hampton already has a community response team with its investigative services.
“What we are doing is a little different than what we’ve done in the past,” Assistant Chief Orrin Gallop told the Hampton City Council at its last session. “What we decided to do is just add to our community response team, since they’re properly trained and are used to doing that type of high impact policing. We’re also looking at how we improve community engagement.”
Gallop’s report was a part of the division’s annual review of crime statistic, this year led by interim Police Chief Kenny Ferguson.
Ferguson was tapped last month to lead the department of 376, including 315 sworn officers — according Hampton’s current budget — over the next few weeks while the city hunts for a permanent successor for Terry Sult, who retired. He is
not among the list of candidates being consider for the top job.
Homicides are lower compared to the first three months in 2020. There are eight death investigations this year, but some are being reviewed as justifiable homicide, police said.
Sexual assaults are trending higher but most are historical cases surfacing, Ferguson said. Auto thefts have spiked, Ferguson said.
“Ninety percent of all auto thefts are due to people leaving their keys in the cars unattended, or cars running while going into convenient stores ... they are targeting the convenient stores, shopping centers and apartment complexes,” Ferguson said. “They (also) were targeting police offices and military police because they know they can find weapons. We are letting people know, don’t secure weapons (or) leave your keys in the car. The unique correlation ... is once they steal the car, they’re now using that vehicle to commit other crimes.”
Hampton police say they have faced an uphill battle against violent crime compared to last year. The pandemic has compounded the problem — with everyone, especially young people, cooped up at home, unable to get away from a domestic situation, perhaps, or unable go to school, which may have been a safe place.
“They’ve been in that hotbed now for a year. And they have idle time. It’s really a recipe for an increase in violent crime,” Capt. Jason Price said during the presentation. “From the very beginning of the year, we knew that this was going to be a tough year for us. And I think that’s what you’re seeing is not just here, but regionally and nationally. When you couple that with media, hip hop, social media, the spirit of violent crime with the younger generation, and the pandemic, we’re starting to see a trend.”
Gallop, who is one of the candidates being considered for police chief, said Operation Safe Hampton also will revise its felony warrant service. The program also seeks more input from the community, using the mobile command bus, going door-to-door to do surveys and gathering information on criminal activity in neighborhoods, because “numbers sometimes say one thing, but the people that live in the neighborhood say another thing,” Gallop said.
Hampton plans to promote the operation via social media and other campaigns.
“We want to be transparent,” Gallop said. “There is a certain fear for people who live in a neighborhood and it’s understandable, and that there are consequences sometimes when you cooperate. We want to make it comfortable for them to cooperate with us and to show them that we’re not there just to go into the neighborhood ... as more of an occupying force. This whole operation is to make it comfortable for citizens, the good citizens of Hampton, but uncomfortable for people that have committed criminal acts.”