Safety Resources

Richmond’s Real Time Crime Center:

The center provides RPD with the ability to capitalize on a comprehensive and expanding range of technologies for efficient and effective policing. The technologies available include security cameras, license plate readers (LPR) cameras, shot detection, officers' body-worn cameras, and more – all tools that will allow officers to respond to calls for service more efficiently, more deliberately, with improved operational intelligence, and with a proactive emphasis on officer, citizen, and community safety.

In a nutshell, you can get a black box to share some or all of your business cameras with RPD. They can access it in real-time if there is a crime or post crime. It's totally voluntary and you choose amount of access (like, outdoor only camera access).

If you want a black box to allow the police access to your cameras as part of the crime center go online here: www.Richmondconnect.org

Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design: (CPTED)

It's a multidisciplinary approach that aims to reduce crime and increase perceived safety by changing the physical environment:

How it works

CPTED uses design to influence human behavior and discourage offenders from committing crimes. It can be applied to buildings, public spaces, landscaping, and outdoor environments.

Who can use it

CPTED can be used by developers, architects, housing communities, and individuals to make their homes, businesses, and neighborhoods safer.

How to use it

Some examples of CPTED include:

Ensuring trees and bushes aren't overgrown so criminals can't use them as cover
Making sure doors and windows are unobstructed so criminals can be easily seen
Installing and maintaining sufficient lighting
Creating wrap-around balconies and lots of glazing to create natural surveillance

If you want a FREE CPTED Assessment of your property, there are still some spots left for December and January! Contact: justin.gardner@rva.gov

Want to see a copy of someone else's CPTED before committing to having one done? Here's one from Tarrant's Cafe: CPTED Report 2024.

How do VCU Police fit into the safety discussion in the Arts District?

VCU police are one of the largest university police departments in the country and we are sandwiched between their two major campuses, the MCV and the Monroe Park campus. The map here shows their core jurisdiction in red, their secondary enforcement areas in blue (areas they respond to if involving a student or VCU property) and the orange is their new support capacity area as requested (again, if involving a student or VCU property). They share the same call system as RPD, so if you call 911 and the crime involves a student, mention that, and VCU Police will often respond and be able to possibly give care specific to the students needs and follow up.

For VCU students (your employees or guests), they offer RamRide/RamSafe- a free ride home, to or from work, or restaurants, using the app: Ride Pingo. They can even schedule pickups in advance.

Our VCU Police speaker last meeting, Caine Greene, spoke at that meeting and a one on one meeting with me, on VCU police's wide range of duties from house party/noise complaint follow ups to their Victim Coordinator Unit which has a victim centric process including offering rides to court cases, protective orders ands walking victims through the legal process. They have a new data sharing system in the works where license plates, body cameras and their 2,000 cameras will be integrated. Their "Shot Spotter" technology is used to pinpoint the location of gunshots.

Their "Safety Ambassador" program is a volunteer based group of trained individuals armed only with flashlights and yellow vests that respond to police calls when police are not necessary such as welfare checks or offer safe rides.

They have a task force for graffiti and also deal with car breaking, pedestrian safety and all the same issues as we do in the Arts District. And we are sandwiched between their campuses and are part of their jurisdiction in blue as you can see.

This is just the tip of the ice berg on what they offer and how they work with RPD- and their introduction at the Watch meeting was only 5 minutes, so if you want to know more, check out their website: https://police.vcu.edu/about/.

PS: If you remember one thing about VCU Police, it's to sign up for the "VCU Alerts", which even non-students can sign up for, has alerts from active shooters to traffic impact information.