Crime down 11% in Northampton in 2023

By Linda Cicoira

The total number of crimes reported in Northampton County in 2023 was 316, down from 356 in 2022 and 341 in 2019, according to annual reports recently released by the state police. Those figures represent a drop of more than 11 percent in a year and more than seven percent since before the pandemic.

The Northampton County Sheriff’s Office handled the bulk of the reports, or 199 crimes compared to 228 reports in 2022, a drop of nearly 13 percent. The figure was the same as in 2019.

A breakdown for 2023 for the sheriff’s department shows 103 crimes against property, 82 crimes against persons, and 14 crimes against society, which usually means gambling, prostitution, and drug violations.

The state police investigated 23 crimes in 2023 in Northampton County up from 15 in 2022, and down from 45 in 2019.

Crime was up for the Cape Charles department which received 19 complaints in 2023 with 12 crimes against property, six against people, and one against society, compared to 14 in 2022, and 12 in 2019.

Exmore police had 75 reports in 2023 with 52 against property, 19 against people, and four against society. That is down considerably from 2022 when there were 99 complaints made to town police, and 2019 when there were 85 complaints reported.

The report showed a Cheriton Police Department, The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel Police Department, and the Eastville Police Department but did not include recent crime figures.

A further breakdown of 2023 crimes reported to the sheriff’s office shows 30 destruction, damage, or vandalism of property; 24 all other thefts; 12 burglaries; nine vehicle thefts; five receiving money by false pretenses or swindles; four forgery/counterfeiting; four credit card or automatic teller frauds; two embezzlements; two identity thefts; two robberies; two thefts from a vehicle; two thefts of vehicle parts or accessories; two stolen property offenses; an arson; a wire fraud; and a pocket-picking.

     All the searches to this publicly accessible site were done through a very complicated database.