It looks like a problem that has happened with other police units in the USA and around the world: downgrading crimes to noncrimes on purpose to make the crime statistics artificially good.
Years ago, the Philadelphia police department was classifying rapes as nonrapes and basically ignoring the victims and the crimes until a woman, Shannon Shieber, was murdered during a rape.
http://inquirer.philly.com/packages/crime/2004/022104inqmain.asp
Recently, the police in Suwon, South Korea revealed a person they recently arrested for a murder/dismemberment may be a serial killer since there are 135 missing women and children in the area. Before he was caught, the citizens weren't aware there were so many missing females. The police didn't respond to an emergency call from his most recent victim until she was already dead and then they tried to cover it up.
http://rokdrop.com/2012/04/12/suwon-murder-suspect-could-be-a-serial-killer/
It gets old seeing police departments doing this. It's bad enough that the police in Virginia are downgrading murderers down to noncrimes and literally blaming the victims. But it's even more appalling that these victims were productive members of society. These women were taxpayers who have been paying the salaries of the police for years. The police pocket the tax money from these women and discard the women just as casually as the murderers themselves. It's sickening.
I think the only way anything is going to get done is for AnotherNiece and others who care to contact the Richmond branch of the National Organization for Women (NOW), and similar organizations at the local and national level, and stage some protests in front of the police headquarters, after calling the news media and letting them know it's about to happen, so the public will be made aware of the problem.
http://www.now.org/chapters/va.html
A lot of women in the area are probably like Shannon Shieber and have their guard down because they don't know about the crimes. Leyla Namiranian didn't think she could become a victim of the killer of Kelly Catalano, since the police reported the killer, Kelly Catalano herself, was already dead. But when it's obviously some person who is still alive and on the prowl, you end up with a long trail of dead women.