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Crime & Safety

Crime Down More Than 20 Percent in West Springfield District

Police captain Gives 'State of the District' Speech

Crime in the West Springfield police district, which includes all of Burke, is down more than 20 percent from last year.

Police Captain Bruce Ferguson, the station commander of the West Springfield Police District, talked about the reduction in crime in his annual "State of the District" speech last night to members of the West Springfield District Citizen Advisory Committee at the District Police Station on Rolling Road.

The captain attributed the drop in crime to a combination of good police work, community involvement, and luck.  "We were very aggressive on burglaries," Ferguson said. "We did a lot of work with neighborhood watch." 

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Despite the current economic troubles, Ferguson is not concerned about an increase in crime in the coming year. "People in Fairfax County don't turn to crime to supplement their income," Ferguson said.  Overall, crime has decreased 20.37 percent so far this year, which comes on top of a 10 percent drop last year.

Ferguson said he had recently spoken with a 35-year veteran of the force about the drop in crime. "He says this has been the slowest summer he has seen in 35 years," Ferguson said.

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One type of crime that has bucked this trend is robberies. "We had eight this time last year, 22 this year," Ferguson said. Even then, 59 percent of these cases have been closed.

Some of the most common crimes in the district are thefts from vehicles, especially unlocked ones. Ferguson cited one dramatic case in which a few people from Washington, D.C. came to the area in stolen cars t0 steal items from unlocked vehicles. The police department urges citizens to always lock their car doors and remove their valuables from parked cars.

Within the overall crime decrease is a small decline in sex crimes. "We don't have a lot of stranger danger type sex crimes, usually it's people you know," Ferguson said. Most are incidents of date-rape or are committed by family members.  "I'm sure there are a lot more that are not recorded because of shame or guilt," Ferguson added.

With the school year starting and the roads getting busier, police in the West Springfield District will be focusing on traffic safety.  "We're going to be extremely aggressive on distracted driving," Ferguson said.

In his speech, Ferguson heaped praise on his assistant commander, Lieutenant Randy Joyce, and Crime Prevention Officer J.T. Frey.  He also thanked the neighborhood watch leaders in the audience for making this past year such a safe one.

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