Violent Crimes In Alexandria 2019: FBI Report Shows Increase

ALEXANDRIA, VA — New data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation shows a decline in violent crimes nationally in the first six months of 2019 compared to the same time period in 2018. The law enforcement agency recently published its "Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report," which covers crime data from January through June 2019. Alexandria saw a slight uptick in violent crimes six months of 2019 when compared to figures for the first six months of 2018.

The report is based on information from 14,273 law enforcement agencies that submitted three to six months of data for both 2018 and 2019 to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program. Alexandria violent crimes reported to law enforcement in 2019 totaled 137, up from 125 in 2018.

The report only covered cities with 100,000 or more people. Alexandria's numbers were low compared to other populous Virginia cities; Virginia Beach had 250 violent crimes, Norfolk had 601, Newport News had 472 and Chesapeake had 524.

Here is the breakdown for Alexandria by crime type:

• Murder: 1 in 2018; 1 in 2019
• Rape: 16 in 2018; 7 in 2019
• Robbery: 36 in 2018; 44 in 2019
• Aggravated assault: 72 in 2018; 85 in 2019

All four of the offenses in the violent crime category — robbery, rape, murder and nonegligent manslaughter, and aggravated assault — showed a decrease in the United States from the first six months of 2019 when compared to the first six months of 2018.

On a national scale, the number of robberies decreased 7.4 percent, rape offenses dropped 7.3 percent, murder and nonnegligent manslaughter offenses fell 3.9 percent, and aggravated assault offenses dropped 0.3 percent, according to the law enforcement agencies that reported data to the FBI.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation included a caution against the rankings within its report.

“When the FBI publishes crime data via its UCR Program, some entities use the information to compile rankings of cities and counties. Such rankings, however, do not provide insight into the numerous variables that shape crime in a given town, city, county, state, tribal area, or region.”