Prince William County officials Friday attributed a 19.3 percent decline in crimes against people from 2006 to 2007 to last year’s crackdown on illegal immigrants.
Board of Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart said the major difference between Prince William and other counties where crime is on the rise is the county’s “very aggressive crackdown on illegal immigration.”
“That’s the major difference,” he said. “As illegal immigrants are leaving, our crime rates are decreasing.”
But Nancy Lyall of Mexicans Without Borders, an immigrant advocacy group, said that the declining crime rates are misleading.
“To attribute the crime rate to the [immigrant] resolution is not true,” she said. “It may be impacting the crime rate, but it’s not impacting the crime, especially against the immigrant community. There are a lot of crimes unreported [now] because immigrants are afraid of going to the police.”
Prince William’s homicides declined by 43.8 percent, from 16 to nine, the incidence of rape increased by 33.3 percent, from 21 to 28, robberies declined by 22.5 percent, from 351 to 272, and aggravated assault declined by 18.2 percent, from 379 to 310, said the study released last week.
“That’s a huge reduction in crime in and of itself,” Stewart said.
Fairfax County’s overall crime rate increased by 6 percent from 2006 to 2007, and the county’s violent crime rate increased by 4 percent over the same period.
Stewart also said that the hiring of more police officers helped contribute to the declining crime rate.
Prince William’s overall crime rate — the number of crimes per 1,000 residents — dropped from 21.6 in 2006 to 19.8 in 2007, down from 24.5 in 2004 and 22.8 in 2005.
Some year-to-date crimes against people for 2008 have also declined from last year’s numbers through the same time period.
There have been 1,102 total assaults through May of this year, compared with 1,170 through the same time period for 2007. There have been 86 felony assaults in 2008, down from 153 in 2007, and robberies are down to 78 in 2008 from 103 in 2007.
There were nine rapes in 2007, compared with 10 in 2008, and there were three homicides in 2007, compared with four in 2008.
