Alexandria Crime Rate Drops for Serious Offenses

ALEXANDRIA, VA — Despite an increase in the number of homicides, serious crime decreased by 4 percent in 2016 over the previous year, according to the Alexandria Police Department. Officials said the city continues to experience historic low crime rates.

"The decreasing crime rate reflects well on our community and the hard work of the employees of the Alexandria Police Department and our partners," explained Alexandria Police Chief Michael Brown. "By working together and strengthening our community partnerships, we can keep Alexandria a safe city for all those who live, work and visit here."

The reduction came in the overall number of Part I crime — defined by the FBI as murder and nonnegligent homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, motor vehicle theft, larceny-theft and arson — based on a comparison with 2015 numbers.

Part I crimes are considered more serious in nature because they include crimes against people. "Statistics from 2016 show some of the lowest Part I crimes the city has experienced since the 1960's," according to Alexandria police, who said that the city experienced reductions in all but two categories of Part I crime in 2016.

The city experienced three more homicides in 2016 than it experienced in 2015, increasing from four to seven. But officials said that five of those seven cases were closed by the end of the calendar year. Rape and aggravated assault, which increased in 2015, both decreased in 2016, by 37 percent and 17 percent respectively.

"Officers in Alexandria continue to remain active and vigilant despite an overall decrease in incidents," according to police officials. "Calls for service, which includes traffic stops made by officers, dropped by 2 percent from 70,255 in 2015 to 68,610 in 2016."

A total of 4,902 arrests were made in 2016, according to police officials.

For more information about crime statistics, visit www.alexandriava.gov/Police.