Henrico saw 13% decrease in crime in 2025, fewest homicides in 60 years
Henrico County witnessed only three homicides in 2025, a drop of about 86% from the 22 it recorded the previous year, according to Henrico Police Chief Eric English.
That figure is the lowest number of annual homicides Henrico has seen since 1965, a “truly amazing” feat for the county, said English. Henrico reported one homicide in the Brookland District, one in the Fairfield District, and one in the Varina District last year.
“We’re going to count our wins when we can, because I’m very, very proud of that number,” said English at a Henrico Board of Supervisors meeting last month. “We’re still dealing a lot with crime, and there’s some things we’re going to be doing in 2026 to try to address some issues we’ve had. But overall, we had a very successful 2025.”
During November’s “2025 State of the County,” English credited the steep decline in homicides to HPD’s increased presence in neighborhoods with more violent crime, such as St. Luke’s Apartments, Newbridge Village, and the Laburnum Avenue and Nine Mile Road corridors.
In January, English again brought up HPD’s continued focus on high-crime areas but also said that a surge in firearm seizures has helped reduce homicides in the county.
“Gun seizures started to go up around 2023. . . we’ve been very consistent in gun seizures over the last three or four years,” he said. “We’ve been really proactive particularly on traffic enforcement. That’s where we see a lot of our gun seizures coming from, because mainly guns travel in vehicles.”
During the last few years, Henrico Police officials have seized an average of about 800 guns annually (more than 900 in 2024, and about 760 last year – most from traffic stops).
The county's overall 13% reduction in crime broke out thusly by magisterial district:
• Brookland District – 15% decrease;
• Fairfield District – 7% decrease;
• Three Chopt District – 22% decrease;
• Tuckahoe District – 14% decrease;
• Varina District – 13% decrease.
Henrico witnessed a 4% decrease in violent crime.
Overall crime down, but county has seen uptick in robberies
The steep crime decline in the Three Chopt District – which typically sees a high number of home break-ins and retail burglaries each year because it has so many businesses – may be due in part to HPD's efforts to work with stores to implement better surveillance technology and mechanisms, English said.
The Fairfield District historically sees some of the highest amount of violent crime and homicides in the county, so even a 7% crime reduction is a mark of success for HPD, said English.
“That’s really good for Fairfield. It’s the second year in a row that they’ve been down,” he said. “Anytime you can get a 7% reduction in Fairfield, it’s really a win for us, because that’s really one of the most difficult areas we have to police.”
Community involvement also has been a key factor in crime reduction, said English, with HPD working over the past few years to establish better relationships with different neighborhoods.
“In 2020, when we were still somewhat in the COVID era and coming out of that civil unrest, you had a lot of people that were just reluctant to be proactive in terms of law enforcement. I think we started seeing a lot more proactivity around 2023,” he said. “When stuff happens now, our community is talking to us, and that’s because of the relationship-building we’ve had over several years.”
Despite a huge reduction in homicides, Henrico only saw a 4% dip in violent crime last year due to the large number of robberies that have occurred.
HPD has specifically seen a significant spike in robberies involving Facebook Marketplace, English said, with residents placing items for sale on the site and then being robbed by the prospective buyer.
So far this year, the county has experienced one homicide, in the Varina District, and police officials have identified a suspect, English said.
This year, HPD officials plan to continue focusing on violent crime hotspots, especially in the Fairfield District, while aiming to decrease the number of robberies countywide, English said.
“My focus is always going to be on violent crime – those people getting shot, robbed, those type of things,” he said. “In Henrico, the areas that we’ve normally seen violent crime are the same areas we’ve seen year-in and year-out, so our focus has to remain on those corridors. And I’ve asked our staff to take a look at the uptick in robberies across the county and see what we can do to try to mitigate that, and that’s going to be huge for us.”
HPD will release a more comprehensive report with crime statistics for 2025 on its website later this month.
Liana Hardy is the Citizen’s government and education reporter. Support her work and articles like this one by making a contribution to the Citizen.
