Crime in Fairfax County is down more than 9 percent in 2011, after a 10 percent decline in 2010, according to police statistics that show Fairfax to be one of the safest counties in the Washington area. “We don’t know what the explanation might be,” said police spokeswoman Lucy Caldwell. “We hope it’s effective policing and excellent community participation, but it’s very hard to answer that question.”
Regardless of why Fairfax residents are behaving better than in years past, Caldwell said the declines mirror trends nationally. In 2009, homicides fell by more than 7 percent throughout the United States, according to the FBI.
Fairfax recorded 74 rapes in 2010, down from 105 in 2009. Murder saw a slight increase to 16 in 2010, from 14 one year earlier.
The number of crimes dropped for a second straight year even though county police changed the way they collect the data to a system that should have increased the number of crimes overall. Under the previous system, police reported only the most serious crime even if multiple crimes occurred. If a victim was shot and his car was stolen, only the shooting showed up in the statistics. The new system includes the shooting and the car theft.
Still, personal property thefts fell to about 14,300 from 15,600 in 2009. There were about 960 car thefts, compared with at least 1,100 in 2009.
The statistics reveal Fairfax to be among the safest counties in the Washington region.
While murder and rape rates were about the same as in neighboring Montgomery County, Fairfax had only 390 robberies and 450 aggravated assaults in 2010, compared with 990 robberies and 900 aggravated assaults in Montgomery in 2009, the most recent available figures show.
