HENRICO COUNTY, Va. -- Violent crime and car theft were up in Henrico County, according to a report Henrico Police Chief Eric English presented to the Henrico County Board of Supervisors. Chief English said he was not available to speak with CBS 6 today to answer questions about his presentation to county leaders.
The Board has proposed $107 million in funding for the police department. That is a $7 million increase from the year before.
Chief English said he was appreciative of money to use for technology advancements amid a department staffing shortage.
"We use a lot of technology in order to get the job done," English said. "We did all of this with 64 bodies down in staffing last year. We continue to see that has been a struggle as far as recruitment and getting the number of folks we need.”
Rise in certain crimes
English said there were 710 vehicle thefts and 405 violent crimes (murders, rapes, robberies, and assaults) reported in 2023.
Both totals represent five-year highs in those crime categories.
"People are just stealing vehicles at a higher rate," English said about the situation in Henrico and across the nation due, in part, to the ease with which people steal cars like Hyundai's and Kia's. "We’re recovering a lot of these vehicles. A lot of stolen vehicles are recovered, but there are juveniles just stealing left and right. So there's a rapid pace that we're seeing."
Data from the police division showed that about 70% of stolen cars were ultimately recovered in 2023.
While violent crime did rise overall, English said murders in Henrico dropped from 30 in 2022 to 24 in 2023, which he considered to be a success.
However, 24 murders is still higher than the five-year average of 18 murders.
A Henrico crime heat map showed violent crimes occurring more frequently in the county’s eastern districts, but English said murders can happen anywhere.
"It’s not really one area that you can look at where homicides are gonna frequently occur," he said.
'I’m all for funding the police'
Henrico resident Bruce Jones said he generally felt safe in his western Henrico community.
"There's not a lot of crime where we are. There's really no violent crime," he said. "We’ve got a real good neighborhood watch system, and everybody's is talking all the time on the little neighborhood websites. So we're pretty well connected."
But Jones did admit his neighborhood was not immune to the car theft trend.
"We woke up one day, and our neighbor had texted us and said, ‘My car has gone has been stolen,’” he said. "It’s a little unnerving, right in front of your house there, for something like that to happen."
Despite the relative safety that Jones felt at home, he said he supported the county spending more to keep the community safe. Particularly, he would like to see more police officers present in the community.
"I’m all for funding the police. The more the merrier. And giving them the power to do what they need to do," he said.
Henrico County also has plans to fund the Marcus Alert System this year, which is required by state law.
The system is an online database where people with mental illness can voluntarily submit their information to emergency dispatchers with the intent to help law enforcement improve its response to those in a crisis.
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