'Everything is not OK. It's not
anywhere near OK' | Major crimes are up in Fairfax County
FAIRFAX, Va. (7News) — With five
weeks to go until the end of the year, crimes against people and crimes against
property are up in Fairfax County, Va.
That’s according to the latest
data from the Fairfax County Police Department.
These crimes include arson,
burglary, vandalism, robbery, motor vehicle theft, assault, homicides,
kidnapping, sex offenses and other major crimes.
“We have for the first time ever,
have an Auto Crimes Enforcement squad. All they do is go after car thieves,”
said Kevin Davis, the Police Chief of the Fairfax County Police Department.
Davis said this has helped reduce
skyrocketing auto thefts --- although he said auto thefts are still up over
last year.
“At the end of March, across the
county, [auto thefts] were up about 45%,” said Davis. “And this Auto Crimes
Enforcement squad has driven that down and we stand at about ten percent increase
in auto theft.”
“We are challenged by auto
theft,” added Davis. “We are challenged by the theft of catalytic converters.
We are challenged by domestic violence, and we are challenged by simple
assaults.”
All year, 7News has been tracking
and reporting on crime trends in Fairfax County.
In August, when 7News told Board
of Supervisor’s Chair Jeff McKay that several categories of crime are going up,
McKay responded by saying Fairfax County is the safest jurisdiction of its size
in the country.
It’s a message that’s been echoed
by Fairfax County’s top prosecutor Steve Descano.
“At the end of the day, we are
experiencing what most jurisdictions are experiencing except we are weathering
it much better,” Descano told 7News. “That allows us to keep our communities
safe and crime is down over the last few years in general.”
Descano is counting all crimes,
including Group B offenses which include drunkenness. But the number of Group A
crimes is increasing.
Supervisor Pat Herrity is calling
out local leaders like Chairman McKay for painting a rosy picture of crime
trends in Fairfax County while the Fairfax County Police Department (FCPD) is
short around 200 officers.
“Everything is not OK. It’s not
anywhere near OK,” said Herrity. “You can’t be down 200 officers, disbanding
all your specialty units, units that took our department from a good department
to a great department and be OK. The police shortage impacts everybody day to
day. Whether that be increase crime, increase speeding, and people ignoring
traffic laws. It puts us at risk. We’ve seen that in everything from our mall
managers not reporting crime, now to the increased traffic fatalities that
we’ve had. It’s something that when you lose control of, it’s hard to get back.
We need to get back to public safety being a priority in Fairfax County.”
As of Nov. 22, Fairfax County saw
20 homicides in 2022 which is the same number of homicides in 2021. In 2020,
there were 15 homicides and in 2019 there were 14 homicides, according to FCPD
data.
“Murders 2022 vs. 2021, we are at
20. You might recall we finished 2021 with 20 murders,” said Davis. “A third of
those murders were committed by adult children killing their parents inside
their homes. This year is a little bit different. But, domestic violence in
terms of homicides is still the theme. Nine of our 20 murders are
domestic-related murders. So, we are still seeing domestic violence stress and
anxiety, isolation all those things play a role in the family dynamic and
violence that has erupted because of that.”
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