Homicide rates this year are showing declines in D.C. and suburban Maryland but appear to be holding roughly steady in the inner suburbs of Northern Virginia, most recent statistics show.
With 2006 coming to a close, the region’s two deadliest jurisdictions likely will end the year with dramatic cuts to their homicide rates, according to information provided by police departments. The District has recorded 156 homicides this year, 40 fewer than last year. Prince George’s County, which saw 169 homicides in 2005, has had 121 this year.
Montgomery County authorities report 14 homicides so far — and a possible 15th; there were 19 last year.
But directly across the Potomac, Virginia localities do not show the same pattern, though they boast generally fewer homicides. Arlington and Fairfax counties and the City of Alexandria are all showing a homicide rate that is more comparable to the previous year’s.
And in 2005, each of the three jurisdictions had seen at least a 100 percent jump in homicides over 2004. Law enforcement officials caution, however, that the number of homicides is too small each year to represent a trend.
“There is nothing here that indicates, just taking one year, a trend of any sort,” said Lt. Richard Perez, a spokesman for the Fairfax County Police Department, which reported 18 homicides this year — three of which occurred more than the past few days.
Last year, Fairfax County saw 20 homicides, and only nine the year before that. Alexandria has had five this year, four last year, and two in 2004. In Arlington County this year, four people have been slain, which is one fewer than last year and three more than in 2004.
The city of Richmond, by comparison, has seen a progressive drop in its homicide rate over the past three years, according to Dana G. Schrad, executive director for the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police.
There is little consensus on why the region’s homicide rates grew, fell, or stayed the same, and officials are hesitant to speculate on specific factors that might have driven the change. Alexandria Police spokeswoman Amy Bertsch pointed to the general lack of unifying characteristics among the city’s incidents this year.
“There is no pattern with these homicides,” she said.
