Richmond saw 53 murders in 2024, according to yearly crime data presented by police officials, the lowest number since 2018 and below the city’s 10-year average of 60 murders per year.

At a public briefing Thursday at the Richmond Police Department headquarters downtown, Chief Rick Edwards said violent crime had also fallen below 1,000 incidents per year, a milestone he said shows crime continues to trend downward in the city. The 967 violent crimes clocked last year were well below the 10-year average of 1,150, Edwards said, and “the lowest we’ve been able to find.”

“I know it's not always obvious for folks and doesn't always feel that way, but this is the hard data,” Edwards said.

The chief went on to say “no murder is acceptable to us,” but reiterated that many numbers are going in the right direction given Richmond’s history.

“When I was at the University of Richmond in 1994, Richmond was the murder capital of the country per capita,” he said. “We are a bigger city now, population-wise, yet we have less murders.”

The full violent crime statistics presented at the briefing for 2024 showed:

• Homicides fell by 18%
• Rapes fell by 19%
• Commercial robberies fell by 20%
• Individual robberies fell by 4%
• Aggravated assaults fell by 2%

Richmond’s Commonwealth’s Attorney Colette McEachin, whose office prosecutes crimes in the city, told The Richmonder she’s “gratified” to see the stats and feels they show the city’s restorative justice initiatives and alternatives to incarceration are working.

“It allows people the opportunity to be held responsible for what they did, but not necessarily end up with felony conviction or even a misdemeanor conviction,” she said. “And also make some type of restitution to the person or thing that they harmed, whether it’s money or an apology letter.”

Property crime also fell overall in 2024, but some categories of property crime did see increases. The property crime stats showed:

• Shoplifting rose by 3%
• Commercial burglaries rose by 26%
• Residential burglaries fell by 1%
• Thefts from motor vehicles fell by 10%
• Thefts of motor vehicles fell by 6%

The gun violence numbers weren’t all positive.

The number of non-fatal shootings ticked up from 190 in 2023 to 200 last year, but that figure is still below the 10-year average of 204 shootings. Accidental shootings also increased slightly from 25 in 2023 to 28 in 2024.

After Richmond officials helped convince the state to pass a law last year banning auto sears — small devices that can convert firearms into automatic weapons by enabling them to fire multiple rounds with one trigger pull — city police are finding fewer auto sears in the course of their work. In 2023, 18 of the devices were seized in the city. Last year, only 8 were seized.

“The interesting part of that is we seized 5% more guns than we did last year,” Edwards said. “So more guns are being seized, but we're seeing less of these deadly devices. Which I think is a positive sign."

Asked if the transition of power at City Hall is going to change any priorities for the police department, Edwards said he’s meeting frequently with new Mayor Danny Avula and his team.

“And they have some things that we may be announcing that we are going to do a little bit differently this year. So I think there's definitely an opportunity to incorporate his vision of public safety,” Edwards said.

The chief did not elaborate on what those changes might be.