Pompey police say Major Case Unit won first overdose-linked first-degree murder indictment, report year‑over‑year drops in violent crime

The Pompey Police Department said its Major Case Unit secured the department’s first indictment for first‑degree felony murder connected to an overdose in November 2024 and has since presented five cases to the grand jury, securing indictments in each instance, the department said.

The department framed the milestone as the result of sustained investigative work and said detectives remained diligent in holding drug dealers accountable through 2025. The statement emphasized that such cases “require extraordinary dedication, commitment, and persistence.”

The department provided year‑over‑year crime figures it said reflected improvements in public safety: murders decreased by more than 13%; robberies dropped by over 36%; aggravated assaults declined nearly 23%; burglaries fell more than 15%; and motor vehicle thefts decreased by over 15% compared with the previous year. The department attributed those reductions to proactive policing, community partnerships and cross‑division efforts.

The statement credited officers, detectives, dispatchers, civilian staff and supervisors for the results and said the department will continue to pursue investigations with the same resolve. The department did not specify the number of overdose deaths tied to the indicted cases, nor did it provide case names or charging documents in the statement.

The department described the indictments and the crime data as department‑reported metrics; independent verification of those statistics and additional case details were not provided in the statement.