For the second year in a row, Buckingham and Prince Edward counties had the highest number of drug and narcotic offenses within The Herald’s coverage area.

According to the recently released Virginia State Police-complied 2014 state crime report, there were 154 drug arrests in Buckingham and 159 in Prince Edward. Cumberland saw 71, while Farmville had 31.

The report is compiled using arrest data from local law enforcement agencies and state police.

Compared to 2013, there were 11 less drug offenses last year in the Heart of Virginia, encompassing data from Buckingham, Cumberland, Prince Edward, Farmville and Longwood University. The greatest number of drug offenses were in Prince Edward last year.

Law enforcement officers from the agencies, including state police, responded to 1,819 incidents last year — 101 less than in 2013. There were only two murders last year across the area, which took place in Buckingham.

The number of robberies dropped from 14 in 2013 to eight last year, while the number of kidnappings and abductions — all of which were in Buckingham — rose by one to three last year from 2013. One hundred thirty-one burglaries were reported last year along with 468 larcenies.

Farmville had the most robberies and larcenies last year at five and 191, respectively.

In 2014, there were 66 more arrests than the year before at 1,623.

Across the state last year, there were over 444,000 serious offenses reported — down by about 12,000 from 2013.

When comparing the two years’ statistics, Connie Koski, an assistant professor of criminology and criminal justice at Longwood University, said the numbers were “very promising.”

“It’s important to note, because sometimes people forget, that these numbers represent numbers of crimes reported to the police. In other words, what that doesn’t count are crimes that have gone unreported to the police,” said Koski, terming the unreported numbers as the “dark figure of crime.”

“Given the economy that’s very promising,” she said of the reduced number of larcenies in the region.

There are numerous factors that play into the fact of the reduction in total incidents, the professor said. It could be in part due to the new police chief in Farmville forging a strong relationship with the Longwood Police Department, she said. “That’s really a promising relationship that’s developing.”

“Typically, crime is more related to poverty in rural areas particularly, in the south,” she said.

“All law enforcement officers within this group are hardworking and dedicated officers and we see some of the same crimes that major cities deal with but not in significant numbers,” said Ray Ostrander, president of the Piedmont Law Enforcement Association and a deputy chief of Longwood’s Police Department.