HAMPTON ROADS, Va. (WAVY) — When the pandemic started, Hampton Roads saw crime rates soar. But as the COVID era winds down, so does the rise in crime. Despite this decline, polls show most Americans still believe crime is still a serious problem.

Our news team spent weeks gathering crime data from your communities. The numbers show an overall drop from 2022 to 2023 — with a few exceptions.

But crime has not disappeared. Anti-violence activist Bilal Muhammad knows this first-hand after losing one of his own last June. Muhammad was on the phone with his son, Ali, when someone drove up and blocked his driveway.

“He was on his way to work,” Muhammad recalled. “My son says to the young man, ‘Please take that gun out my face.’ What could I say, what could I do? Then the gunshot went off, pow. And I hollered, hollered to my son, Ali, Ali… And I knew. And I hung up, and I called back, he didn’t pick up. And I knew right then, my son been shot.”

Ali was killed. Muhammad, forever crushed by loss of his own, still presses on with anti-violence activism. As we enter the new year, we are starting to see the outcome Muhammad has been hoping for.

“We have seen significant significant declines in crime across practically every category,” said Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatahi.

Norfolk saw a drop in crime numbers from 2022 to 2023. Murders went down by about a third. All violent crime is down by about a quarter. This is according to police data Fatahi pulled after the new year holiday. He said this trend is in line with the national crime rate.

“The FBI numbers back this up,” Fatahi said. “The preliminary 2023 numbers show the largest national drop in violent crime in American history.”

He said there are a few exceptions. Our news team spent weeks digging up the numbers to find out what they are.

In Virginia Beach, violent crime went up by about 5%. Newport News police said they had a record year for homicides, with 45 killed there last year. In Hampton, total crime ticked up slightly. As for Portsmouth, much of its violent crime went down sharply. Same story for Chesapeake — with one exception.

“One thing we did notice is that our larcenies are significantly up,” said Master Police Officer Leo Kosinski with the Chesapeake police department.

Larcenies in Chesapeake shot up from 4,494 in 2022 to 6,641 in 2023.

“Juveniles would come from other cities and come to neighborhoods in Chesapeake just for the sole purpose,” Kosinski said. “The car would come in with half a dozen kids or teenagers or what not, let the kids out, they walk throughout the neighborhoods and start checking vehicles, checking doors. It’s just complete crimes of opportunity.”

He said a lot of this can be prevented — if people would just lock their doors.

Up in York-Poquoson, Sheriff Ron Montgomery said they are also seeing a decline in violent crime, but it has noticed a growing problem with online scams.

“Recently during the holidays, we actually had an individual here in York County [who] lost well over $300,000 to this type of scam,” Montgomery said.

Montgomery has also noticed a disturbing trend with child pornography in the county. He is hoping recent advancements in law enforcement strategies will bring these rates down. They are also continuing an awareness campaign about common scams hitting the area.

A Gallup poll shows the majority of Americans think the crime problem in our nation is extremely serious, despite much of the data showing otherwise. Fatehi said how we consume news and social media has a lot to do with the negative perception. He warns against this perspective ahead of the political season.

“As people hear an individual story about an individual crime, it lays fertile ground for somebody to use it as a political tool and say, ‘You’re not safe, I’ll make you safe,'” Fatehi said. “We would hope that people who are doing that would be responsible enough to be relying on actual data and telling the truth, especially when the data shows that crime goes down, but that doesn’t always happen.”

As for stopping the crime we still see, he said the solutions are not in the justice system.

“Better jobs for working people, better blue collar jobs, better schools, more integrated schools, better transportation, better healthcare and mental health,” he said.

Muhammed said the solution starts at home.

“The main source that the problem is taking place from is in the home — the family,” Muhammad said. “Work with the youth. Teach them like we was taught, … how to play football, how to play basketball, how to play baseball, how to read, how to write. Do different artworks. Come back to your community and give the blessings, the talent that you was given. Bring it back home.”

Fatehi expects the crime trends to stay about the same as we head into 2024, but it is tough to predict. Anything could happen.