This Police Department Has a Secret Weapon Against Violent Crime

PORTSMOUTH, VA – The city of Portsmouth, Virginia has a population of 95,000 people. It's home to one of the nation's oldest naval shipyards and its downtown area boasts scenic waterfront views.

The city also has one of the highest murder rates in the country – higher per capita than Chicago and Washington, DC. 

Rev. Barry Randall is known in Portsmouth as "The People's Pastor." Randall grew up here and leads the congregation at All People Cultural Life Church. The locals lovingly call the city P-Town. But its charm is overshadowed by its reputation for violence.

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"Every day we have gun violence and shooting somewhere, and someone is trying to take someone's life," Randall said.

The US murder rate began surging during the COVID pandemic and now sits at its highest level in nearly two decades.

Murder in Portsmouth has become such a problem the state is giving it $500,000 to try to stop it. The question is, how does the city plan to use it?

"We've been asked a lot of questions about what is our strategy, what are we going to do and how are we going to address crime? Point blank, I'm not going to say that. When you're playing football, you don't tell the other team your next move," said Chief of Police Renado Prince.

His cryptic approach to the city's crime problem didn't last long. After serving the city for only ten months, Prince was fired in July for what was termed a "breach of trust."

A Secret Weapon Against Crime

Different police departments have different strategies for tackling crime. Not 20 miles away in Virginia Beach, Chief Paul Neudigate believes his department has a secret weapon to stop rising crime and gun violence – data.

Neudigate decided instead of throwing money at officers, maybe a better tactic would be to build up the department's analytical services unit.

That's why Virginia Beach is reinvesting in a law enforcement tool that's been around some 20 years. It's called Crime Mapping. It uses historical data to build a heat map of when and where crimes might happen in the future. Think of it as an almanac for crime prevention where police are able to forecast crime before it even happens.

"It's incredibly telling because crime is historical, and it can be cyclical – and if it's happening year-over-year at the same time – it can allow us strategies and try to impact it," Neudigate said.

Some of the data is made public in the weekly analysis for Virginia Beach Engagement and Strategies, or WAVES. While there are concerns that data could be biased towards people of color, Chief Neudigate attributes crime mapping to his year's 27 percent reduction in the number of shooting victims in the city. 

"It's what the community is telling me, it's what the victim is telling me. And are there disparities? Absolutely, we know that there are disparities in that data… a large amount of victims of violent crimes are minorities," Neutigate said.

'Shotspotter'

Another tool used by Virginia Beach Police hides on the city's rooftops. It's a technology called "Shotspotter." It alerts police to precisely the location where gunshots are fired.

"I would say it probably has a 95 percent success rate," Neudigate said. "It leads to a confirmed activation – that 95 percent of the time we are responding and finding either shell casings… sometimes making arrests or finding witnesses that say, 'Yeah, I saw this and here's this.'" 

While both Crime Mapping and Shotspotter have been around for years, not all departments take advantage of those resources. 

Back in the city of Portsmouth, the local hospital is footing the city's bill to purchase Shotspotter. It's a signal of hope for its citizens who are still desperate for answers to the violence.

"[What] people need to know about Portsmouth, is Portsmouth has potential," Rev. Randall said.