Uptick in gun violence and/or homicides
The number of people killed by homicide throughout Hampton Roads remained high in 2022, with many cities again recording a significantly higher number than in the years before the pandemic.
Chesapeake, Hampton, Norfolk, Newport News, Portsmouth, Suffolk, and Virginia Beach collectively recorded 207 slayings in 2021. As of mid-December, those same seven cities had a total of 209 homicides.
Norfolk has seen some of the biggest increases, with its yearly homicide totals growing from 36 in 2017 to 63 as of mid-December. That’s all happened while its police department grapples with major staffing shortages.
Local efforts to address the violence have included community engagement initiatives, funding for gun violence intervention, and ramped-up enforcement of nightclubs and restaurants. In Portsmouth, police have held multiple R.E.S.E.T
Walks — which stands for Rapid Engagement of Support in the Event of Trauma — in neighborhoods that have experienced recent violence in order to talk with residents.
In Norfolk, where multiple shootings have occurred downtown, the city has increased its police presence, added surveillance cameras and closed bars and nightclubs there that have violated their city permits. Newport News surveyed residents about crime and doled out funding to organizations focused on violence intervention among young people.
In October, Gov. Glenn Youngkin came to Norfolk to announce a new initiative called Operation Bold Blue Line that will seek to tackle police staffing issues, in part by recruiting out-of-state officers and streamlining the process for them to join local departments.
—Jane Harper