To the editor:

I am writing regarding the story, “Crime drops in SRHA communities,” published June 24 in the Suffolk News-Herald.

While the article addressed an important matter, the fact that the city has recorded “less than one violent crime a month across all five of SRHA’s properties,” one fact that was left out was that crime is down across the entire state of Virginia.

It is my opinion that the presence of the Suffolk police officers does deter violence. However other aspects also contribute to this decline.

According to Virginia.gov, the violent crime rate for Virginia was 186 per 100,000 people in 2015. The site also reveals that the rate of violent crimes has been decreasing steadily since 2006.

While violent crime rates have been increasing in states like Tennessee, North Carolina and Maryland, Virginia had the lowest violent crime rate among these states in 2015.

Yes, Suffolk police are some of the finest, but let us also remember that the state of Virginia is one nice place to live.

Anna Hartman

Suffolk