HENRICO COUNTY, Va. -- While Henrico County's crime rate in 2015 was the lowest ever recorded, crime numbers were up in some areas, according to the annual crime data report. The numbers showed larcenies in the Tuckahoe section of the county at a five-year high.
Larcenies in that area increased from 748 in 2014 to 948 in 2015.
"Maybe in the past they haven’t been patrolling these areas quite as frequently and maybe that is something that needs to be taken another look at," Rich Pfeffer, who lives in Tuckahoe on a street where a larceny was reported in 2015, said.
In the nearby Three Chopt district, the number of rapes increased from one in 2014 to seven in 2015.
In all five districts combined, forgery/counterfeiting crimes went up nearly 50 percent, and there were also 15 Peeping Tom offenses last year compared to one in 2014.
Over in Henrico’s East End, the county’s 12 murders all occurred in two districts: Varina and Fairfield.
“A lot of those areas are deprived,” Walter Ampey, who lives in Fairfield, said.
Ampey lives just down the street from where a man was beaten to death by his roommate last year.
Walter Ampey
He praised the efforts of police, but blamed poverty and folks moving into Henrico from the city for the murders.
“You can’t look at the police and go, 'hey, stop this crime in my neighborhood.' No, it’s you, you’re responsible to stop the crime in your neighborhood,” Ampey said.
Also of note, juvenile misdemeanor arrests were down 36 percent.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Shannon Taylor provided this statement about the reduction:
“The decline in juvenile arrests as contained in Chief Middleton’s 2015 report is a welcomed result for the police change that was implemented last year regarding the role of the Henrico Police School Resource Officer. We expected that school administrators would assume a greater role in addressing the behavioral based disruptions occurring in schools. I hope that the concerted effort has resulted in safer environments for our students.”
