Crime is notably down in Fairfax County, even though calls mental health crises are on the rise.
Suspects in nearly a third of Fairfax County’s 19 homicides this year were sons in their late teens or twenties in mental health crisis, killing their mothers, fathers, or in one case, a sister.
“That’s a startling startling statistic,” said Police Chief Kevin Davis, in his 100-Day Plan Update to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, Oct. 26 in its Public Safety Committee meeting.
Hunter Mill Supervisor Walter Alcorn noted the county police department’s co-responder pilot program with the county to address
“This is becoming a bigger issue,” said Alcorn.
“I want thank you chief for working with [Fairfax County Community Service Board] and others,” said Alcorn, “and looking to see where we can do a better job of service to folks that are having mental health and behavioral crises.”
See http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2021/oct/27/alternatives-police-intervention/
Suicide prevention calls and mental health crises are “dramatically on the rise,” according to Davis, There were six more carjackings and an increase of 24 non-fatal overdoses compared to last year, Davis said. He described police and Fire and Rescue responding to one scene where they had to administer NARCAN to “all six of those individuals in what was a chaotic chaotic scene.” That resulted in two fatalities.
“We have 3,614 fewer overall crime victims in Fairfax County.”
— Police Chief Kevin Davis
Overall, crime is down and “we have 3,614 fewer overall crime victims in Fairfax County,” said Davis. “So what’s down? Robberies, burglaries, auto-theft, assault and domestic assault, bias incidents, fatal crashes, fatal pedestrian crashes, fatal overdoses are slightly down.”
Lee Supervisor Rodney Lusk chairs the Board’s Public Safety Committee.
“I have heard and I have seen so many posts that crime is out of hand in Fairfax County that we are in a desperate situation. Clearly the numbers don't prove that out, we’re in the exact opposite situation,” said Lusk. “I hope that people are listening and can hear this. We have lower crime in Fairfax County than virtually any of our neighboring jurisdictions. When we talk about Northern Virginia as a whole, the crime statistics for the region are significantly different than the crime statistics here in Fairfax County. Things are going a lot better here than in other places.”
Chairman Jeff McKay said, “We owe it to our officers to report these successes, too.”