Violent crime was down across the board in 2024, according to the Richmond Police Department’s annual crime statistics, which Chief Rick Edwards shared in a January press conference.
Overall, 967 violent crimes were committed last year, down from 1,023 in 2023 and from a height of 1,309 in 2016. Those crimes include homicide, rape, robberies and aggravated assault, all of which fell from the previous year. Nonfatal shootings (200) were up from 2023 but down from 257 in 2022. Robbery of individuals — most frequently around the Southwood neighborhood in the southeastern corner of the city — occurred 173 times in 2024, continuing a downward trend since 427 were recorded in 2014.
Edwards highlighted that RPD’s clearance rate of homicide cases — in which an investigation ends in an arrest — was 55.6%, up 9 percentage points from last year. Unsolved homicides logged through incident-based reporting were resolved at an 88.7% rate, more than 20 percentage points higher than the rates in 2023 and 2022. “This year, the Richmond Police Department cleared 14 homicides from previous years,” Edwards said, with the oldest being from 1998. “It’s important to know that we never give up on these cases,” he added.
Edwards ended the news conference by holding up a court summons he received for reckless driving, saying one of his officers pulled him over on Jan. 15 for going 61 miles per hour on Robert E. Lee Memorial Bridge — where the speed limit is 35 mph — while in his police car. A court date on the Class 1 misdemeanor was set for Feb. 12. “It’s important for me, it’s important for our community, to slow down,” Edwards said, “and I will deal with the consequences of this.”
