Crime data released by the Arlington Police Department this month show a drop in crimes from the same time last year. Rapes, murders and robberies are down from 2002. But violent, non-fatal attacks and sexual assaults in the county are up.
Despite recent high-profile incidents of gang violence in the area, police say the numbers show that residents have no need to fear for their public safety.
As gang-on-gang violence intensified last month, local police turned an eye toward public safety. Residents were alarmed by several gang-related assaults, malicious woundings and an attempted robbery, as well as a standoff that resulted in an early closure of the county fair Saturday, Aug. 23. Public concern prompted police to calculate an unofficial indicator of public safety.
Officers began crunching numbers and had unofficial totals ready Tuesday, Sept. 9. These new statistics come straight from Arlington County Police Department database and are not official until certified by the State Police.
Officers looked at eight categories of crimes that could affect public safety: homicide, forcible rape, robbery, malicious wounding, simple assault, sexual assault, peeping tom and exposure.
The county saw 901 of those incidents from January through the end of August this year, 124 fewer than the 1025 such incidents over the same period last year.
“The truth of the matter is we have a spectacular police department here,” said Rich Doud, president of the Arlington chamber of commerce and the Crime Solvers board. “Just about every place in the county is a secure place.”
The county has seen two homicides this year, as opposed to three by the same point in 2002. Arrests have been made in both 2003 murders. Forcible rapes dropped from 19 to 17; robbery incidents declined from 140 to 120; simple assault fell from 695 to 580. Peeping tom incidents fell from 19 in 2002 to 10 so far this year, while incidents of exposure fell from 36 to 26.
IN SOUTH ARLINGTON, some residents have been concerned about crime this year. Rebecca Krafft, president of the Douglas Park Civic Association, said that she has seen an increase in gang tagging along Columbia Pike, and many residents remain fearful of car theft.
Incidents like vandalism and car theft are visible problems, but they don’t endanger public safety the way violent crimes can. So police were relieved to see a decrease in violent crime categories like assault, forcible rape and homicide.
“When [residents] see something visible, it tends to make people think that the crime rate is getting worse,” said Dan Krasnegor, president of the Arlington Civic Federation.
The federation has not taken an official position on crime in the county, but Krasnegor said most people he has talked to seem to feel safe, though many keep an eye on gang activity as a spark that could ignite future problems.
POLICE REMAIN ACTIVE in crime prevention. Under the “community policing” strategy, officers work with members of the community to try to stop crime before it starts.
“It’s one thing to catch a criminal,” said Doud. “It’s entirely another thing to keep somebody from becoming a criminal.”
Despite an overall improvement in the public safety indicators, there is some cause for concern. Police were on the lookout earlier this year for at least two men who committed a series of sexual assaults. Though the end of August, police received 39 reports of sexual assault, 16 more than the 23 reported over the same period in 2002.
In addition to sexual assault, incidents of malicious wounding are also up this year, from 90 in the first eight months of 2002 to 108 so far this year. That news isn’t all bad for average law-abiding citizens, though. Police believe the increase is due, in part, to gang violence, most often gang-on-gang incidents which rarely result in injuries to bystanders.