Background
This chapter covers police, including emergency communications, the Sheriff’s Office, fire and emergency medical services, codes compliance and emergency management. Together, the departments that provide these services ensure the safety and well being of the Newport News’ residents and their properties.
Three citizen surveys conducted in 1990, 1997 and 2006 for the Framework for the Future established that public safety, crime and drug abuse were very high priority issues with citizens. The 2006 survey showed that crime and public safety have been a top priority concern over a twenty year period. Of the 1,000 citizens surveyed, 63% responded that public safety is a major issue facing Newport News, and that more needs to be done to address crime. This response represents a decrease from the 1997 survey, in which 70% of the citizens indicated that more needed to be done to address public safety concerns. When asked if more funds should be spent toward addressing the issue, 44% of citizens favored raising taxes or reallocating existing funds for public safety programs.
The citizens most concerned about crime and public safety were women (69%), minorities (78%), citizens with no more than a high school education (78%), those with an annual household income of less than $50,000 (70%), and the residents of Planning District I (74%). Seventy-seven percent of those surveyed believe that crime and public safety is worse in Newport News than in other Peninsula cities.