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Tag: crime trends

  • Why crime in Fairfax Co. fell across several categories in 2025 – WTOP News

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    Crime fell across several categories in Fairfax County last year, Police Chief Kevin Davis said, touting the agency’s efforts.

    Crime fell across several categories in Fairfax County last year, Police Chief Kevin Davis told WTOP, touting the agency’s use of emerging technology, recruitment, retention efforts and focus on road safety.

    In an interview with WTOP on Friday, Davis said homicides fell 15% in 2025, compared with 2024. There were 12 murders in the Northern Virginia suburb in 2025, and Davis said the department closed all its homicide cases with arrests.

    Similarly, nondeadly contact shootings fell 37% and robberies fell 20%.

    The positive crime trends come in the backdrop of a similar regional and national reduction in violent crime across the country, Davis said.

    But there’s a “bad guy community,” Davis said, of crime suspects who closely monitor the strategies that police departments use. As a result, he said, law enforcement has to evolve to stay ahead.

    “They know that there are cameras out there in public spaces that are more likely now than ever before to capture the comings and goings of the vehicle that they’re using to perpetrate their crimes,” Davis said. “We have to recognize that our crime-fighting strategies are paid attention to by every aspect of the community, to include people who commit crimes.”

    Stolen cars are down 19%, Davis said, crediting the department’s group of full-time, auto crime enforcement detectives who handle burglaries. Burglaries are down 28%, he said.

    “That’s something I hear about whenever I travel throughout Fairfax County. If your car is stolen or if your house is broken into, that invades your sense of privacy in a really, really profound way,” Davis said.

    Meanwhile, after watching shoplifting offenses increase for several years, Davis said shoplifting fell 13% in the county in 2025.

    He described the offenses as retail crime, “because it’s not little Johnny or little Jane taking a candy bar from the 7-Eleven. It’s not someone who is without food who’s stealing to feed himself or herself. These are retail crimes that are committed, increasingly in an organized way, not only in Fairfax County, but regionally and across our country.”

    In Tysons specifically, shoplifting fell 22%, which Davis attributed to a full-time urban team assigned to the community. The group is assigned to not only the mall, “but the entire footprint.”

    Fatal motor vehicle deaths were down 57% last year, Davis said, and while fatal pedestrian deaths rose seasonally in 2025, when it got darker earlier in the day, the category fell 20% overall.

    The department has a group of full-time detectives who respond to and exclusively handle deadly and nondeadly overdoses and opioid deaths fell 30%, Davis said.

    Arrests for driving while intoxicated rose about 7%, and Davis touted an increase in traffic enforcement, particularly a series of campaigns targeting speed, unsafe lane changes, tailgating and distracted driving.

    “We could not care less about any citation revenue that the state or the county generates from our enforcement efforts or from our automated enforcement efforts on school buses and other school zones,” Davis said. “We care about changing bad driving behaviors.”

    Because the agency has a 3% vacancy rate, its lowest in years, Davis said each of the eight district stations has neighborhood policing teams. They respond to hot spots and monitor crime trends in the areas they oversee.

    Hundreds of people and businesses have shared access to their cameras with police, Davis said, emphasizing his belief that a focus on traffic enforcement has a major impact on reducing murders, shootings, robberies and carjackings.

    “If folks drive with impunity and think that they’re never going to encounter a uniformed police officer in a marked car, they’re more likely to carry a firearm,” Davis said. “They’re more likely to get in a dispute with someone.“

    Business checks and regular communication with school resource officers are also helping drive crime down, Davis said.

    “Just because we and others in the region and across the country had a really successful, in terms of data and numbers, 2025, that doesn’t mean that 2026 is going to be an automatic,” Davis said.

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    Scott Gelman

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  • How dangerous is downtown Sacramento? KCRA 3 Investigates tracks recent trends

    How dangerous is downtown Sacramento? KCRA 3 Investigates tracks recent trends

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    The city of Sacramento has been working to attract more people downtown ever since it was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, some businesses worry people just don’t feel safe in the area.“Dear Sacramento, Downtown is dirty, dangerous and dead. In fact, I’ve never seen it so dirty, so dangerous or so dead,” JE Paino wrote in an open letter in November, which he posted outside his business.Paino owns the Ruhstaller BSMT, a taproom on K Street near 8th Street. He was moved to share his message after, he said, someone wandered in to use the restroom and then wouldn’t leave, harassing and even hitting his taproom manager.He expressed concern over how the city is handling problems with homelessness and crime.“The boldness of the actions of individuals is frightening,” Paino said.For a clearer picture of what violent crime in downtown looks like, KCRA 3 Investigates requested Sacramento police data on batteries and assaults in the area for the last five years. We combed through more than 1,600 cases, involving crimes ranging from battery on a civilian, assault with a deadly weapon or brandishing a weapon.App users, click here if you’re having trouble seeing the data visualization The data showed there was a slight dip in the number of batteries last year compared to the year before, but compared to pre-pandemic numbers, they are still high. The trend was similar for assaults reported downtown.“Obviously, we look at the numbers, and we go, ‘Okay, why did these numbers change?’” said Sacramento Police Officer Cody Tapley.He said part of it might be because the department started tracking crimes differently last year to align with FBI standards.“If there is an offense and, in that incident, there are multiple crimes that occur, you are now writing separate reports for each crime,” Tapley said.He said before November 2022, incidents involving multiple crimes were compiled into one report and logged based on the most severe charge.In addition, Tapley attributed the spike in 2022 to the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.“With more people going out and about, there’s obviously more likelihood for crimes to occur,” he said. “There’s more people to report crimes occurring.”KCRA 3 Investigates also looked at where those crimes were occurring in 2023.Most were reported near Downtown Commons (DOCO), particularly at the 400 block of K Street. Other top spots included 9th and I Streets near City Hall and Cesar Chavez Plaza, along with 8th and J Streets near a 7-Eleven.“It’s just interesting to watch that be the one spot that like, you know, that there’s going to be police cars there every night,” Angelika Feldman said. “I know Takumi across the street decided to close their doors a lot of because of that, and same thing with the eyeglass place that’s over there.”Feldman opened Flora & Fauna Provisions in the area earlier this month.She said her business has surveillance cameras and 24/7 security. Plus, she said police are very responsive. Overall, Feldman said, she does feel safe, especially in the daytime.“We actually really love the environment downtown,” Feldman said.She noted that the Sacramento Kings playing at the Golden 1 Center has helped to bring more people downtown.“I think that it’s really started to revitalize the area,” Feldman said.“We are beginning now to recreate the momentum that we had prior to COVID, and it’s going to take a lot of work,” said Mayor Darrell Steinberg.He said there are some hopeful signs of improvement, pointing to data Sacramento police released in October. Rather than focusing on a particular neighborhood in Sacramento, the data was citywide, showing an 18% drop in violent crime in the first nine months of 2023 compared with that timeframe the year before.“COVID, a once-in-a-century event, changed things but not forever,” Steinberg said.

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. —

    The city of Sacramento has been working to attract more people downtown ever since it was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, some businesses worry people just don’t feel safe in the area.

    “Dear Sacramento, Downtown is dirty, dangerous and dead. In fact, I’ve never seen it so dirty, so dangerous or so dead,” JE Paino wrote in an open letter in November, which he posted outside his business.

    Paino owns the Ruhstaller BSMT, a taproom on K Street near 8th Street. He was moved to share his message after, he said, someone wandered in to use the restroom and then wouldn’t leave, harassing and even hitting his taproom manager.

    He expressed concern over how the city is handling problems with homelessness and crime.

    “The boldness of the actions of individuals is frightening,” Paino said.

    For a clearer picture of what violent crime in downtown looks like, KCRA 3 Investigates requested Sacramento police data on batteries and assaults in the area for the last five years. We combed through more than 1,600 cases, involving crimes ranging from battery on a civilian, assault with a deadly weapon or brandishing a weapon.

    App users, click here if you’re having trouble seeing the data visualization

    The data showed there was a slight dip in the number of batteries last year compared to the year before, but compared to pre-pandemic numbers, they are still high. The trend was similar for assaults reported downtown.

    “Obviously, we look at the numbers, and we go, ‘Okay, why did these numbers change?’” said Sacramento Police Officer Cody Tapley.

    He said part of it might be because the department started tracking crimes differently last year to align with FBI standards.

    “If there is an offense and, in that incident, there are multiple crimes that occur, you are now writing separate reports for each crime,” Tapley said.

    He said before November 2022, incidents involving multiple crimes were compiled into one report and logged based on the most severe charge.

    In addition, Tapley attributed the spike in 2022 to the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    “With more people going out and about, there’s obviously more likelihood for crimes to occur,” he said. “There’s more people to report crimes occurring.”

    KCRA 3 Investigates also looked at where those crimes were occurring in 2023.

    Most were reported near Downtown Commons (DOCO), particularly at the 400 block of K Street. Other top spots included 9th and I Streets near City Hall and Cesar Chavez Plaza, along with 8th and J Streets near a 7-Eleven.

    “It’s just interesting to watch that be the one spot that like, you know, that there’s going to be police cars there every night,” Angelika Feldman said. “I know Takumi across the street decided to close their doors a lot of because of that, and same thing with the eyeglass place that’s over there.”

    Feldman opened Flora & Fauna Provisions in the area earlier this month.

    She said her business has surveillance cameras and 24/7 security. Plus, she said police are very responsive. Overall, Feldman said, she does feel safe, especially in the daytime.

    “We actually really love the environment downtown,” Feldman said.

    She noted that the Sacramento Kings playing at the Golden 1 Center has helped to bring more people downtown.

    “I think that it’s really started to revitalize the area,” Feldman said.

    “We are beginning now to recreate the momentum that we had prior to COVID, and it’s going to take a lot of work,” said Mayor Darrell Steinberg.

    He said there are some hopeful signs of improvement, pointing to data Sacramento police released in October. Rather than focusing on a particular neighborhood in Sacramento, the data was citywide, showing an 18% drop in violent crime in the first nine months of 2023 compared with that timeframe the year before.

    “COVID, a once-in-a-century event, changed things but not forever,” Steinberg said.

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