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.

Subject: October Crime report

Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2005

From: "Paul Larson"

Everyone:

I am forwarding the crime statistics for the month of October and a map of the Part 1 offenses. I compared the crime statistics from January 2004 - October 2004 to the same time period this year. The results were very interesting. Robbery, burglary, stolen cars and stealing items from cars is down significantly in the Third District. Robbery is down 29%, burglary 11%, stolen cars 25% and stealing items from cars 24%. While I am pleased with the current downward pattern, there are some areas of concern we need to concentrate.

Columbia Forest, Columbia Heights and Fairlington neighborhoods have had an increase of cars broken into and vandalism to cars. In Columbia Forest, most of the activity is focused around the 7-11 at Columbia Pike and S. Columbus St. The apartments that surround that area have been the victim of numerous cars being broken into. Also, two robberies occurred in October in the same area. These robberies were contained to the drunk/homeless people that hang out around the 7-11 and the bikepath. The cold weather should slow this problem, but it will reappear in the spring.

Columbia Heights had a series of cars that had their windows smashed out over the weekend. A total of 9 cars were hit and the only information we have is 2 black males in a silver car. This coincides with other vandalisms that occurred over the summer.

Fairlington has seen an increase of cars being broken into and a few stolen cars. We deployed our fleet of "bait cars" in the area and last night, (11-16-05) three juveniles were arrested stealing one of the cars. Our Auto Theft detectives are trying to link them to the other stolen cars in Fairlington, along with the cars that were broken into. We are comparing numerous pieces of forensic evidence to the three juveniles, but it does take time to get results from the Virginia State Crime Lab.

On another note, it is my understanding that construction will begin on Columbia Pike after the first of the year. This is part of Columbia Pike Revitalization. I am confident the the construction will bring numerous traffic headaches for all of you, especially on cut through streets. We will continue to monitor the cut thru's, but this project will go on for several years and traffic is going to be a major issue.

Finally, I want to wish each of you a joyous Thanksgiving.

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

Map for October (.pdf format)

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

This page was revised on: November 16, 2005.