(Danville) — A statewide crackdown on violent crime that included the city of Danville is getting high marks from the state’s top prosecutor.
Attorney General Jason Miyares came to town Tuesday to highlight Operation Ceasefire, an effort to reduce violent crime that was launched in October 2022. Miyares says they partnered with police and prosecutors in 13 cities with high rates of violent crime. “We had some bold ambition. We were gonna target thirteen of our cities that had unacceptable level high levels of of gun violence with a three tiered approach,” Miyares said. “It was gonna be prevention. It was gonna be intervention and indeed it’d also be prosecution.”
Operation Ceasefire focuses on prosecuting repeat offenders, especially those that use guns. But Miyares says it also focuses on prevention, aimed at young people. “I really wanted to listen to those that are on the front line. Those that are really trying to mentor young men about some of the challenges they’re facing,” Miyares said. “They said the three best avenues for not joining a gang are after school sports, after school activities, and after school church activities. Well, what was closed for eighteen months during COVID? All of those. But the gangs were not.”
Miyares says over 10,000 illegal guns have been recovered from the 13 Ceasefire cities. And they’re getting lots of help. “Whether it’s with our Virginia rules program, whether it’s partnering with so many different stations whether it’s the Boys and Girls Club, whether it’s Big Homies down in Portsmouth—these are groups that are mentoring young men about making the right life choices and being good citizens and how important that is.”
Miyares says the prosecution portion of the effort focuses on the worst of the worst. “Roughly three to five percent of felons are committing over fifty percent of the violent crime. If you want to lower crime, you have to go to those violent repeat offenders and get them out of our neighborhoods and off our streets,” Miyares said.
Miyares says the program has been in place for a year-and-a-half, and it’s already getting results. “Our goal was to drop the murder rate in these 13 cities by ten percent in the first year. It dropped by seventeen percent,” Miyares reported “We’ve seen right just here the city of Danville a 25% decrease in homicide, a 28%decrease in robbery.”
So far, Operation Ceasefire has prosecuted 155 cases, leading to 106 convictions with 41 awaiting trial.
Virginia’s General Assembly allocated an initial $5 million toward the Ceasefire Virginia initiative.