ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ) – Roanoke Police released four years worth of crime statistics to WDBJ7 in December, and they tell a story of a city getting safer by the year.
According to RPD, part one crime, which includes things like gun violence and violent assault, is down. Specifically, there were 39 gun-related homicides from 2022 to 2023. As of Thanksgiving 2025, there were 19 such homicides from 2024 to 2025. The solve rate for those homicides rose from 56.4% to 84.2%, so there are fewer of those crimes and police are solving them more frequently. Non-fatal shootings went from 96 from 2022 to 2023 to 42 from 2024 to 2025 (again, data from December 2025 is not yet available).
Deputy Chief Adam Puckett attributes the improvement to the change in organization brought by Chief Scott Booth, who took over the Roanoke Police Department in October 2023 after moving from Danville. Puckett explained Booth organized the city into quadrants headed up by lieutenants, and that the lieutenants are accountable to the chief on a monthly basis, and they also get plenty of tips and feedback from the communities in which they police…