The Charlottesville Police Department released its annual report for 2023.
The report details crime rates, complaints against officers, department staffing and budget, among other data.
“Despite unprecedented challenges, including having thirty sworn vacancies and a drastic increase in gun violence, we have remained focused on being community partners in safety,” Police Chief Michael Kochis wrote in the report’s introduction. “We began 2023 with a significant increase in [crimes against the person] specifically in the area of gun violence. Between the months of January and March, we experienced three homicides and were responding to, on average, one shots fired call a day.”
The data shows that the number of reported crimes against individuals dropped between 2022 and 2023. But the number of homicides went up. There were six last year, up from two in 2022, and zero in 2021.
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