Henrico Police chief announces 90% drop in homicides, 12% decrease in crime

The Henrico Division of Police has had a “phenomenal year” in 2025, according to Chief Eric English, with the county seeing a 90.4% decline in homicides and a 12% reduction in total crime since 2024.

As of Nov. 20, Henrico has only seen two homicides this year, a significant drop from the 22 homicides that occurred last year, English said during the Nov. 20 “2025 State of the County” address at the Henrico Sports and Events Center.

Police reported one homicide in the Fairfield District and one in the Varina District.

English credits the decline to Henrico Police focusing on certain pockets of the county that see more violent crime, such as St. Luke’s Apartments and Newbridge Village.

“Most of our homicides historically have occurred in the Fairfield and Varina districts,” English said. “We have areas that consistently have seen violent crime and we’ve been really focusing on those corridors. We made a lot of arrests, taking a lot of wanted folks out of those areas.”

Officers have also been more proactive with traffic stops, English said, and the department has seized many illegal firearms from vehicles in the county, which he said has helped prevent further violent crime. English said that cooperation from the community has also been a significant factor.

But despite crime being down by 12% this year, violent crime has only seen a slight reduction of 3%. Henrico Police have seen an uptick in robberies this year, even though all other categories of violent crime have decreased. 

At the State of the County event, other county officials touted Henrico’s financial gains over the past year. Henrico saw nearly $2 billion in visitor spending during 2024 – the fifth highest of any county in the state – with new facilities such as the Henrico Sports and Events Center bringing in “record high” numbers of sports tourists, said Deputy County Manager of Administration Brandon Hinton.

Hinton also lauded Henrico’s financial conservatism, stating that the county collected $164 million more in revenue during the last fiscal year than what was budgeted, and highlighted Henrico’s new “Quadzilla” status, with two quadruple AAA bond ratings on both its general obligation bonds and public utility bonds.

“We’ve never been in a better position of fiscal wellness that we find ourselves in today,” Hinton said. “Our base is sound and our outlook is promising, which has given the board of supervisors more than enough comfort to institute a number of tax cuts for residents and businesses…and we are not adding undue weight to our budget.”

County officials also shared updates on housing, road and sewer infrastructure, and public schools at the “State of the County” presentation:

Public safety:

• Mental health emergency calls have become “more frequent,” said English, with Henrico Police’s mobile response teams responding to over 500 mental health calls this year;

• Through “proactive efforts,” mobile response teams have contributed to a 69% reduction in emergency hospitalizations this year, said English;

• Calls for emergency medical services have continued to rise in the county, with Henrico EMS seeing an increase of more than 10,000 calls from 2020 to 2024.

Economy:

• Nearly 1,500 new jobs have been created in the county over the last fiscal year;

• Tourism numbers in Henrico have “exploded,” said Hinton, with a total of 4.9 million passengers going through Richmond International Airport in 2024 and 2,000 new hotel rooms being built in the county;

• Henrico has nearly $500 million in emergency cash reserves, with the county remaining “incredibly conservative” and “preparing for the worst,” said Hinton.

Housing and food assistance:

• Henrico’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund and Employee Home Purchase Assistance Program have secured 56 home closings for county employees and residents through more than $12 million in county funds, said Chief of Staff Cari Tretina;

• The $60-million Affordable Housing Trust Fund now includes 141 homes across the county;

• Henrico has donated a total of $400,000 to food assistance organization Feed More this year.

Public utilities:

• The county has 74 active pedestrian safety improvement projects in the works and has added 20 miles of sidewalk and 16 miles of shared-use trails this year;

• Sewer improvement projects have expanded Henrico’s sewer capacity by 77 million gallons of water per day, which helps support the county’s population growth, said Director of Public Utilities Bentley Chan;

• Following January’s water crisis, the Henrico Board of Supervisors approved plans for a new East End Transmission Main that will reduce the county’s dependency on Richmond’s water in the future.

Schools:

• Henrico Schools has an on-time high school graduation rate of over 91%, said HCPS Superintendent Amy Cashwell, and 60% of students earned advanced or International Baccalaureate (IB) diplomas;

• HCPS saw a 10% decrease in threat assessments this past year, which are behavioral examinations conducted for students who pose a risk to others, and saw the lowest number of suicide-risk screenings in four years.

Liana Hardy is the Citizen’s government and education reporter. Support her work and articles like this one by making a contribution to the Citizen.