Rick Edwards, Richmond's interim police chief, provided an update on crime in the city more than four months into 2023 during a public safety briefing Wednesday at Richmond Police Headquarters.

Despite an overall lower crime rate, there has been dramatic increases in shootings. As of August 12, 2019, there have been 37 homicides in Richmond. At the same time last year, the city saw 32.

Richmond’s overall crime rate in 1995 (again, the earliest record we could find) was 103 offenses per 1,000 residents, according to our computations from FBI data. That is the highwater mark ...

Violent crime dropped by 7% year-over-year, despite a 31% increase in homicides, but property crime — up 3% — is a much larger percentage of crimes committed, leading to the overall increase.