ROANOKE, Va. – Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares visited Roanoke on Friday afternoon to hold a roundtable discussion with various law enforcement officials from across Roanoke Valley.
Participants included Roanoke Police Chief Scott Booth, Roanoke County Sheriff Eric Orange, City of Salem Sheriff Chris Shelor, City of Salem Police Chief Derek Weeks, Town of Viton Police Chief Fabricio Drumond, and Western Virginia Regional Jail Superintendent David Cox.
Miyares spoke with the group on numerous topics, including crime trends and what the officers had seen while patrolling the streets.
“They brought up some issues they’ve seen with criminal activity, homegrown gang activity that is,” Miyares said. “The good news is that we haven’t seen quite the level that we have seen in some other areas like organized retail crime.”
Another topic of discussion was Operation Ceasefire, which was launched by Miyares with the intention of lowering violent activity among repeat offenders.
“We focus on repeat violent offenders and intervention and prevention,” Miyares said. “They have seen a dramatic decrease talking to those in Roanoke, a 60% drop from 2023 in gun-related homicides.”
The operation is also designed around preventing violent crime from happening.
“[It] is both intervention in our schools to make sure kids aren’t attracted to the gang lifestyle and prevention for those that are recently released to make sure they are back on their feet, but also prosecution for that small subset of repeat offenders,” Miyares said.
Those repeat offenders can be prosecuted thanks to an increased effort to recruit officers and keep their morale up.
“When you’re able to go after that small subset of small-time offenders and get them off the street, not only does it make the streets safer, but it means that the officers aren’t busy chasing the same people over and over again,” Miyares said.
All of these steps, Miyares says, go towards keeping Roanoke and the greater Commonwealth safe.
“When I took office as attorney general, our murder rate was at a 20-year high in Virginia and our violent crime rate was at a 30-year high,” Miyares said. “We’ve seen a one-third drop in the murder rate and a double-digit drop in violent crime rate in the state of Virginia.”