On the heels of several high-profile shootings involving children here in Richmond, Mayor Dwight Jones and Police Chief Ray Tarasovic asked community members to speak out to help prevent crime at a press conference today.
On the heels of several high-profile shootings involving children here in Richmond, Mayor Dwight Jones and Police Chief Ray Tarasovic asked community members to speak out to help prevent crime at a press conference today.
“Communities can be proactive, and communities must be proactive if we are going to change this paradigm,” Jones said at Richmond City Police Headquarters Tuesday. The conference was announced Monday afternoon, just a day after a 23-month-old girl was shot in her family’s apartment in the Bainbridge public housing complex. She is currently in stable condition at VCU Medical Center, NBC12 reported.
Tarasovic stressed that no “extraordinary increase” in crime prompted the conference, but rather the nature of the crimes so far this year, which have included three shootings of children. So far, 20 homicides have taken place in Richmond this year, compared to 13 at the same time last year.
“If you see something, say something” Jones said, mentioning high-profile crimes that remain unsolved because witnesses have not stepped forward. Tarasovic described the police department’s efforts to build trust in communities, including knocking on doors in high-crime areas, and holding public meetings across the city with residents.
Two of the shootings took place in local public housing communities, Councilwoman Ellen Robertson said, “where we have crammed people of poverty.” Jones said that in addition to policing, other city initiatives such as the recent creation of the Office of Community Wealth Building, headed up by University of Richmond professor Thad Williamson, a long-time anti-poverty advocate, would help alleviate crime.
“It’s important that we have police in neighborhoods,” Jones said, “but it’s even more important that we have relationships.”
