Crime & Safety

Fairfax County Police Release 2010 Crime Stats

Department using new system to count incidents.

The Fairfax County Police Department released 2010 crime statistics on Wednesday, but said a new reporting system makes comparing the stats to previous years innacurate.

There were 17,453 crimes reported to police in 2010, including 16 murders, 963 auto thefts, 14,345 larcenies  and 394 robberies.

FCPD says the statistics are used in making decisions about deployment of police resources to better respond to the needs of the community, to identify trends, and to implement new and continuing strategies to enhance public safety.

Find out what's happening in Mount Vernonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

FCPD is now using the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). The new system counts each crime that occurs during a single incident while the previous system counted only the most serious single crime that occurred during each incident, FCPD said in a statement. 

NIBRS is now the national standard for counting and reporting crime and provides a more comprehensive and meaningful picture of crime in each jurisdiction.

Find out what's happening in Mount Vernonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The FCPD was unable to make the switch to NIBRS until a new Records Management System (RMS) was implemented in 2010. It has enabled the Department to make the switch and to begin building a new baseline of crime data for Fairfax County. 

Due to the change in the way crimes are now classified and counted, comparing prior year statistics to those released after implementation of the new RMS would result in an inaccurate statistical comparison, police said.

Under the old system, 18,938 crimes were reported in 2009, which was a 5 percent drop from 2008.

                Fairfax County Police 2010 Crime Statistics

Incident Number Murder 16 Rape 74 Robbery 394 Aggravated Assault 450 Burglary 1,211 Larceny 14,345 Auto theft 963 Total 17,453


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.

More from Mount Vernon