Local officials see violent flash mobs as an emerging threat in the region. At Wednesday’s Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments board meeting, officials raised concerns about mobs like the group of teenagers that ransacked a Germantown 7-Eleven last month.
“We just cannot believe the brazenness that these young adults have shown,” said Metro Transit Police Deputy Chief Jeff Delinksi. The mobs are “very hard to predict and kind of hard to understand,” he said.
| By the numbers |
| Percent change from 2009 to 2010 |
| Homicide: Down 5.6 percent |
| Rape: Down 1.9 percent |
| Aggravated assault: Down 7.1 percent |
| Burglary: Up 1.5 percent |
Officials brought up the flash mob concerns amid a discussion of the council’s annual crime report, which showed that serious crime in the area declined 5.3 percent in 2010 compared with the previous year. Since 2006, the report found, crime has dropped 12.6 percent.
The report measured homicides, rapes, robberies, aggravated assaults, burglaries, larcenies and motor vehicle thefts in the 20 council jurisdictions.
D.C. Councilman Phil Mendelson called flash mobs “frightening” and said laws for dealing with the crime should be examined. Flash mob thefts usually involve items of minimal value, so the individual culprits only face misdemeanor charges.
“As a group, it’s a much more serious crime,” Mendelson said.
The regional council’s committee of police chiefs is expected to study best practices for combating the problem.
Prince George’s County Councilwoman Karen Toles said violence along the border between the District and the county has also been a problem.
Delinski said multijurisdiction task forces that target such high-crime areas are the best way to deal with those issues.
With such forces, he said, criminals “get arrested no matter what side of the street they’re on.”
Delinski credited such partnerships, and collaboration with community members, for the crime drops in the region.
The number of crimes per 1,000 people was 27 last year, down from 29.3 in 2009 and 32.2 in 2008.
Regional homicides dropped 5.6 percent, from 284 in 2009 to 268 in 2010. The only crime with an uptick was burglary, which saw a 1.5 percent increase.
Delinski said more strategic placement of officers and technology like analytics systems and license-plate readers have also contributed.
Continued collaboration and expanded use of technology, particularly social media, are key for future crime reductions, Delinski said.
