Youngkin and Miyares praise Operation Ceasefire after decrease in violent crime

VIRGINIA (WAVY) — Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Attorney General Jason Miyares are celebrating the success of Operation Ceasefire.

It's been two years since the program, aimed at reducing violent crime around Virginia, was created.

Youngkin and Miyares said in just the past year murder rates have gone down 30% across the state.

Miyares even went as far to say he believes people are alive today because their would-be murderers were prosecuted and put behind bars through the use of ceasefire, which targeted 13 cities across the Commonwealth.

That includes five from Hampton Roads: Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Portsmouth and Chesapeake.

Information released during a press conference on Thursday showed many of the cities included in the initiative have had a decrease in overall violent crime.

Notably about three weeks ago, Norfolk Police Chief Mark Talbot said violent crime was down 28% in the city.

The ceasefire initiative also had a conviction rate close to 100%. The 68 people sentenced under the initiative are facing a combined 470 years in prison. Miyares also spoke about the program's success earlier this year.

"When you have this effort of prevention and intervention and prosecution, you could see that crime goes down," he said.

Yesterday, Youngkin said it was a team effort to see this amount of progress.

"We came together as a Commonwealth — not as a government – but as a Commonwealth. And we said we were going to bring down violent crime — and we were going to do everything in order to do it," he said.

Both Youngkin and Miyares said they hope to get Operation Ceasefire rolled out into more areas next year.