RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — In a nearly hour-long crime briefing on Thursday, Jan. 25, the Richmond Police Department reflected on 2023 — the good, the bad and the deadly.
On Thursday, 8News covered the Richmond Police Department’s end-of-year crime briefing for 2023. According to the report given by Chief of Police Rick Edwards, the city saw an overall decrease in violent crime by 7% in 2023.
At the crime briefing, Edwards made a point to emphasize that the number one killer in the city is fentanyl overdoses. He said the police division’s narcotics department collected 2,200 grams of fentanyl last year.
“People are thinking they’re taking something and they’re really taking a dose of fentanyl and they just never wake up,” Edwards said when talking about what causes most deaths from fentanyl.
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However, deaths from fentanyl are not exclusive to Richmond.
“It’s killing generations of Americans,” Edwards said.
Across the country, about 111,000 people lost their lives to a drug overdose in 2023 — 172 people were reported to have died from drug overdoses in Richmond.