Crime Stats Show Fewer Calls in Reston, But Drug Offenses on the Rise

The Fairfax County Police Department has released its crime stats for 2016, which show a 2 percent countywide increase in police calls from 2015.

Locally, however, the numbers are slightly down. According to the data, the Reston District Station handled 45,845 calls in 2016 — down 1,925 calls, or about 4 percent, from 2015. The Mount Vernon District Station was the only other precinct to see a decrease from 2015.

Overall, in 2016, Reston District Station responded to 6,605 crime-related calls, 21,967 service calls and 17,273 traffic calls. All three numbers are down from 2015.

FCPD Chief Edwin Roessler said countywide, the increase in the number of calls is due in part to significant increases in narcotics offenses. That shows in the Reston District Station numbers, where such offenses increased by 13.6 percent (360 to 417) from 2015 to 2016.

Weapon law violations nearly doubled from 2015, when there were 34 reported. In 2016, the Reston District Station worked 64 such cases.

Assaults were down about 4.5 percent from 2015. There were 23 sex offenses reported, up three from 2015. Larceny and theft calls were down about 8 percent from 2015, while robbery calls also decreased from 43 to 36.

The average response time to top-priority calls from the Reston District Station increased from 2015 to 2016, from 7.1 minutes to 7.3 minutes. This is in line with trends across the county, as all but two districts (Sully and West Springfield) had increased average response times to such calls.

Across all calls, emergency and non-emergency, Reston District Station’s average response time increased from 7.8 minutes in 2015 to 8.4 minutes in 2016. Only Mount Vernon, which increased from 5.8 minutes to 6.9 minutes, had a greater increase. Countywide, the number increased by only 1/10th of a minute.