The 2007 data in the Police Department’s Incident Based Reporting System as of 5/21/08 show 2867 reports of vice offenses for the calendar year[1].  About 95% of those offenses involved drugs or drug equipment:

The database contains reports for "drug/narcotic violation" and a very few "drug/narcotic violations."  I do not know whether this is an error or whether the "s" denotes some kind of distinction between drug crimes.  In any event, for 2007 there are only two "drug/narcotic violations"; the rest show as "drug/narcotic violation."

Combining the drug and drug equipment violations, 96% of the vice offenses reported were drug-related; combining the prostitution and assisting categories, 3.3%% were prostitution-related.  82.9% of the offenses were cleared by arrests.

2007 saw a slight drop in both drug and prostitution offenses.  We could wonder whether the bulge in 2005-07 reflects Chief Monroe's focus on the drug problem, not an increase in drug dealing.

The % cleared by arrest dropped as the number of offenses increased:

Here, just because the computer will do the graph, are the data broken out by month:

Here are the top fifteen blocks for total vice in 2007:

Among these sixteen blocks, we see that rental properties, notably RRHA, apartments, and motels, are at the center of the problem:

Note: The 3000 block of Columbia St. is one block off the prostitution row on Jeff Davis and it ends at the large trailer park in the 2900 block of Jeff Davis.

Here is the property breakdown shown as a graph:

Among the Bad News here is the repeat appearances by 2300 Bethel, 3000 Columbia, 2000 Creighton,and 2000 N 29th.  The really bad news is the ongoing problem at RRHA.

Some good news is the disappearance of 4000 block of Midlothian Turnpike, the Midlothian Village Apartments.  They are 37th on the list this year.  The owners of this complex have been working with the Old South Neighborhood Team (even after the Mayor abolished the Team in late 2005); they achieved major success in removing tenants who harbor drug activity and other antisocial behavior.  The improvements there are clear: The trailing 12-month average has dropped from almost three drug offenses per month to just under one per month.

The really big Good News is the ongoing success of Chief Monroe's sector system: Chief Monroe has equalized the sizes of the precincts and has divided each into three sectors.  Each sector has its own Lieutenant.  For example, if there is a problem in my sector, 312, the person in charge of the problem is Lt. Scott Booth.  Thus, each of the problem blocks listed above belongs to a Lieutenant, whose job is (or will be as soon as the neighbors demand it) to solve that problem.  This accountability is showing good results and I expect more and better in the future.

These data show (again) the vice activity in Richmond to be concentrated at identifiable property, almost always rental property.  State law declares this activity to be a nuisance and provides abundant criminal and civil authority to abate it.  Indeed, the CAPS program has demonstrated that the City can abate drug activity. 

Indeed, as discussed at length elsewhere, nuisance abatement (generally directed at the property owner) is the sole strategy that can be shown scientifically to control drug dealing and related crime at private rental places.^[2] 

As these pages also discuss elsewhere, RRHA is maintaining the largest drug nuisance in the City.  The RRHA Commissioners have demonstrated that they are unwilling or unable to properly run the organization.  Despite a short tour with a new Executive Director who is smart and honest and capable, that Director now is gone and many of the the Commissioners who fostered the mess at RRHA still are in office.  It is past time for a housecleaning at RRHA.

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[1] The data reviewed here are the raw counts from the police database as downloaded on May 21, 2008.  If you perform the same download today you may obtain slightly different results; they are forever changing the data to reflect new information.

[2] This 1998 National Institute of Justice report to Congress discusses the place-bound nature of crime as follows: “Most places have no crimes and most crime is highly concentrated in and around a relatively small number of places. If we can prevent crime at these high crime places, then we might be able to reduce total crime.  [The] findings suggest that something about a few places facilitates crimes and something about most places prevents crimes.”      Preventing Crime: What Works, What Doesn’t, What’s Promising, http://www.ncjrs.org/works/chapter7.htm.  Of course, the something about most property that prevents crimes is an owner (and neighbors) who will not tolerate disorder.  In my view, the focus of community policing should be to encourage and assist the law-abiding landowners and to target the others.