Captain Paul Larson, Commander of the 3rd Police District, provides this monthly report via email. You can request that your address be added to the list by emailing him at plarso@arlingtonva.us, or read it on the Barcroft Chat List.

Everyone:

I am sending you the crime statistics for the month of February. The statistics are as follows:

Aggravated Assault 2
Burglary 11
Larceny 14
Rape 0
Homicide 0
Robbery 6
Vehicle Theft 12

Of the 11 burglaries, 6 of them were committed in the Columbia Forest neighborhood. Two juveniles were arrested last week in relation to 6 of the burglaries and linked to an additional 18 burglaries that occurred over the last several months. The other 5 burglaries, entry was gained by either an unlocked door or window. With the warm weather coming, please spread the word to keep your windows and doors locked while you are away from your home.

Of the 14 larcenies, 10 were items stolen from cars. The majority of the larcenies occurred along the S. Four Mile Run Corridor and Columbia Pike. There is a direct correlation with stolen cars and larceny from cars. Cars are stolen from the same areas and are usually left unlocked and parked in poorly lighted areas. We have deployed several tactics to try and catch the suspects; however, doing things like locking your car has a larger impact than making arrests. We have placed our bait cars in the Third District in the hope of having them stolen. We made four arrests this month with the bait cars for either stealing the car or stealing items from it. This has been a very successful program. Also we have assigned numerous plain clothes officers to work surveillance in the district to try and catch these criminals. Unfortunately, as we make arrests someone else steps into the opening.

Of the 6 robberies, 3 are people who were drunk and became victims. All of the robberies were spread out along Columbia Pike and there does not appear to be any pattern or trends. Arrests were made in two of the robberies, but unfortunately they can not be linked to others.

I hope this information is helpful and if you have any questions please let me know.

Captain Paul Larson
Third District Commander
Arlington County Police Department
1425 North Courthouse Road
Arlington, Virginia 22201
703-228-4097
plarso@arlingtonva.us

For a longer perspective, here are previous crime reports. The numbers were usually worse!

This page was revised on: March 8, 2005.