Virginia Beach to address challenges of maintaining Oceanfront safety
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — Following several incidents involving guns at the Oceanfront this spring, Police Chief Paul Neudigate is preparing to address City Council on some of the challenges his department is facing, according to City Manager Patrick Duhaney.
Specifically, Duhaney said the chief will look into legislative changes that may be needed to implement new crime fighting strategies.
While the city has implemented several initiatives in response to safety concerns in the last few years, under a Dillon rule state, localities operate under the assumption they can only wield powers explicitly authorized to them by the General Assembly.
Duhaney didn't give finite details during Tuesday's City Council meeting what powers the city might back recieving.
However, he did infer that some of the measures passed in the last five years in the name of police reform and racial justice be revisited.
VBPD: 2 separate firearm-related incidents on Atlantic Ave. on Saturday
'[The chief] is going to point out some things that happened through some General Assembly sessions where the pendulum swung one way, and it may be time that there's appropriate discussion about possibly the pendulum swinging legislatively another way,' Duhaney said. 'You know, some things that used to be primary offenses or moved to second-tier offenses, it may make sense to bring back some of those … back to being primary offenses. They give the police officers some opportunities to be more proactive on addressing some issues.'
Virginia Beach would not be the first to raise concerns that some of policing policies may be restrictive.
Following the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, Norfolk City Council passed a policy limiting the ability for police to pursue someone. However, following a spike in crime, it pulled back on the policy.
In 2023, Chesapeake requested the General Assembly allow them to pull over vehicles once again for having expired state inspection stickers or burnt out lights.
'Enforcing these violations is worthwhile for the overall traffic safety of the motoring public, but they were also used very effectively to uncover and enforce more serious crimes to include removing countless guns from the street,' the 2023 legislative packet said.
Neudigate has previously shared that many illegal guns are found during traffic stops.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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