RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — In a nearly hour-long crime briefing on Thursday, Jan. 25, the Richmond Police Department reflected on 2023 — the good, the bad and the deadly.
On Thursday, 8News covered the Richmond Police Department’s end-of-year crime briefing for 2023. According to the report given by Chief of Police Rick Edwards, the city saw an overall decrease in violent crime by 7% in 2023.
At the crime briefing, Edwards made a point to emphasize that the number one killer in the city is fentanyl overdoses. He said the police division’s narcotics department collected 2,200 grams of fentanyl last year.
“People are thinking they’re taking something and they’re really taking a dose of fentanyl and they just never wake up,” Edwards said when talking about what causes most deaths from fentanyl.
However, deaths from fentanyl are not exclusive to Richmond.
“It’s killing generations of Americans,” Edwards said.
Across the country, about 111,000 people lost their lives to a drug overdose in 2023 — 172 people were reported to have died from drug overdoses in Richmond.
In the report, Edwards also highlighted a 39% drop in shooting incidents with multiple victims in Richmond. However, the city had an 8% rise in murders.
“If you look at this year, we did much better [than the year prior],” Edwards said. “I say that knowing that we still had the Altria mass shooting with seven people shot total, and two of those were killed during those shootings.”
Local law enforcement officers are working to tackle this broad range of crime in the community. Edwards said that the department believed the City of Richmond’s “Operation Safe Summer” initiative played a significant role in driving down gun violence.
Edwards discussed further on other efforts the department is taking in order to curb crime, such as using hotspot curves, where police single out areas with high crime rates and make their presence known to potential criminals.
“When our officers are not busy, they go to one of these hotspots for 10 to 15 minutes,” Edwards said. “[Officers] stand out there, sit in their car, engage the public… it’s not an enforcement strategy, but it does two things. It makes the criminals see the officers in these higher crime, high gun crime areas and the criminals can change behavior; but also — probably just as important to me — is that it makes the good folks feel safer.”
Another key message Edwards addressed to the community during the report is the importance of proper gun storage to prevent accidental and deadly shootings. He reminded Richmond residents that the police department is providing free gun safes to those who need one.
Edwards also urged people to always avoid leaving a gun stored in their car as it could end up being stolen and used for crimes.
