In 2018, serious crimes in the City of Alexandria decreased by 1.7 percent. The Alexandria Police Department announced on May 8 that this marks the fifth consecutive year that these types of offenses have gone down.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation classifies these serious crimes, which include crimes against people, as Part I crimes. These include homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny and auto theft.
2,648 Part I offenses have been recorded in Alexandria in 2018. For comparison, 2017 had 2,694 Part 1 offenses recorded.
While the overall trend in Part I crime was down for 2018,
only four of the seven categories actually saw a decrease in offenses from 2017 to 2018. These four crimes are
- Homicide
- Robbery
- Burglary
- Larceny
There were four reported homicides, down from six in 2017; 80 robberies, down from 103; 127 burglaries, down from 167; and 2,073 larceny offenses, down from 2,094.
For the other 3 categories, an increased was seen. These three crimes are
- Rape
- Aggravated Assault
- Auto Theft
There were 11 reported rapes, up from nine in 2017; 151 aggravated assaults, up from 137; and 202 auto thefts, up from 178. It was noted that the increase in crimes related to domestic violence was very concerning.
“Aggravated assault continues to be an issue for the city. In many of the cases, the victim and the suspect know each other, many of them come out of difficult domestic relationships … and that’s a tough nut for us to crack, but we’re going to make an effort to do it with our friends from [the Department of Community and Human Services.]”,
Police Michael Brown from the Alexandria Police department said. As for the increase in auto thefts, Brown said a lot of the cases were a result of residents not locking their cars or in some cases, leaving their keys in the car.
For offenses that fall under Part II category, the police department of Alexandria has not released crime data yet for 2018. However, it will be available to the public soon. Crimes that fall under Part II include simple assaults, fraud, weapon violations and drug- and alcohol-related offenses.
Brown cautioned against reading too much into the year-over-year percentage changes. Since Alexandria generally has a low crime rate, small fluctuations in incidents can lead to larger percentage changes, according to the news release.
Properties in Alexandria
