A bloody, awful year
Record violence in 2023 requires comprehensive regional solutions
Homicides are an imprecise measure of violent crime in a community, but it should be alarming, not only to city residents but the whole of Hampton Roads, that Newport News is on pace to record its highest number in five decades.
The causes are plentiful and speak to the need for city and state officials to adopt proven and promising solutions that can help bolster public safety, including the treatment of gun violence as a public health crisis. Those steps must be taken in concert with neighboring cities, forging a regional effort to curb this senseless loss of life.
According to Wednesday reporting in the Daily Press, Newport News has recorded 42 homicides with only a few weeks remaining in 2023, “the city’s highest homicide numbers in at least 54 years.”
That represents “a 35% increase in killings over the 31 people slain in 2022” with a few weeks still remaining in the year. That trend is notable, since homicide statistics for one year — even a bloody year such as this — are a poor reflection of violence in a community.
The year-over-year trend is deeply concerning, though Newport News has only one homicide in November and (so far) none in December. We can all hope that means things are improving, though it cannot be left to chance.
Certainly Newport News Police Chief Steve Drew takes the matter seriously, sounding the right note when speaking to the Daily Press in September about how homicides shouldn’t be reviewed as statistics but as people.
“They matter to me. Those are family members. Those are people. Those are community members. It affects our communities, our neighborhoods. It affects
our officers … . Every single death matters,” he said.
Drew says his department intends to adopt new approaches and double down on Operation Cease Fire, a federal-state-local partnership that emphasizes gang intervention, community policing and prosecution of firearm crimes. Funding for Virginia’s witness protection program included in this year’s budget should also help criminal prosecutions and keep repeat offenders off the streets.
Operation Cease Fire focuses on communities across the commonwealth, including three others in Hampton Roads (Portsmouth, Hampton and Chesapeake). That adeptly speaks to the need for violence prevention efforts to have both a local and regional focus.
Consider that, even with its record number, Newport News doesn’t have the highest homicide rate in Hampton Roads this year. That ignoble distinction goes to Portsmouth. As Daily Press reporting notes, “On a combined basis, the rate of killings in Hampton Roads’ seven largest cities is more than twice the national average.”
Programs such as Operation Cease
Fire have merit and hold promise. Those responsible for acts of violence should be held accountable, gun laws should be enforced and gang activity, including the recruitment of new members, must be discouraged.
But addressing violence must go beyond the scope of the criminal justice system. Public health experts have long called for the treatment of gun violence, specifically, as a public health crisis.
That means a comprehensive approach that includes medical and mental health professionals to address the community trauma inflicted by violence; intervention teams to assist victims of violence; after-school and evening programs to keep young people off the streets; efforts to discourage truancy and keep kids in school; mentorship programs for at-risk youth; and skills programs, such as resume writing and interview prep, to connect young people to employment opportunities that can break the cycle of violence.
All of these were discussed by Hampton Roads mayors in forums held in 2021 and 2022, and remain the most promising antidote to the violence exacting an awful toll on our region. We cannot police our way to safer streets, even with the help of state and federal partners. Rather, progress will require commitment across our region and resolve to enact strategies that can deliver results over the long term.
Hampton Roads has lost too many people — too many sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, friends and family — to do anything less than all we can.