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As with the national trend, Richmond has enjoyed a decreasing UCR during the '90's.
As usual, the much larger number of property crimes swamps any changes in violent crimes. As the figure shows, Richmond's violent crime rate has not enjoyed the same decrease.
In contrast to Richmond, Bellevue has suffered an increase in crime in the mid-'90's, primarily in larceny and auto theft:
OFFENSE
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
Grand Total
AGGR ASSAULT
2
1
2
2
3
3
13
ARSON
0
0
2
1
0
0
3
HOMICIDE
0
0
0
0
0
1
1
LARCENY
27
16
51
27
27
26
174
LARCENY FROM AUTO
18
20
28
36
43
21
166
MOTOR VEHICLE THEFT
0
3
16
34
27
30
110
NON-RESIDENTIAL BURGLARY
7
14
6
15
13
16
71
RESIDENTIAL BURGLARY
23
27
18
20
8
14
110
ROBBERY AGAINST BUSINESS
0
0
0
1
0
0
1
ROBBERY AGAINST PERSON
4
1
3
2
3
1
14
Grand Total
81
82
126
138
124
112
663
Here are some more recent data showing a delightful decrease in our neighborhood:
The Good News sounds better if you first recall that Richmond's UCR crime is about 85% property, 15% violent. In Bellevue it's 96% property, 4% violent: The dark side of the Good News is that most of the Bellevue UCR crime is preventable.
Assuming 2600 people in Bellevue, the 1999 number translates to a UCR of about 3, i.e., a third of the Richmond rate and about the same as the Virginia average. Not nearly good enough for a peaceful, residential neighborhood.
As troubling as these numbers are, our neighborhood looks like a kindergarten compared to the two long blocks on Chamberlayne between Laburnum and Bellevue. Here are the UCR totals for those two blocks, plus the two blocks between Bellevue Ave. and Westbrook Ave. (i.e., for the four long blocks adjacent to Bellevue), for the period from January 1993 through December, 1998:
OFFENSE
38-4300 Chamb
Bellevue
AGGR ASSAULT
66
13
ARSON
7
3
HOMICIDE
7
1
LARCENY
118
174
LARCENY FROM AUTO
54
166
MOTOR VEHICLE THEFT
83
110
NON-RESIDENTIAL BURGLARY
9
71
RAPE
10
RESIDENTIAL BURGLARY
132
110
ROBBERY AGAINST BUSINESS
1
ROBBERY AGAINST PERSON
54
14
Grand Total
540
663
Violent
25%
4%
Yes, folks. They had over almost as much UCR crime in those four blocks as we had in all of Bellevue (and they had a whole lot more violent crime) (Follow the link for more about Chamberlayne). We now are trying to get the police data to see if there is a connection between what's happening there and what's happening here.
There are troublesome parallels with the year-by-year changes, too.
Clearly we have generally increasing crime in our neighborhood and the neighboring stretch of Chamberlayne at a time when overall crime in Richmond (and Virginia and the United States) is decreasing. Something is wrong here.
By looking at the Police Department's data, we also can see where the crime takes place in Bellevue. As you would expect, the two hot spots are the 4000 block of MacArthur and the 1200 block of Bellevue. The crime data pages have details.
We're beginning to identify the problem here. Doubtless the solution will take awhile longer. If you would like to help out with this, please sign up for the Neighborhood Watch and the Bellevue Patrol. Please also read the sections on the Safety Committee and on community policing, and call the chairman to sign up to work on the matter.
Last updated 02/24/02
Please send questions or comments to John Butcher