Crime way down in Arlington

ARLINGTON – In his annual State of the Department address Police Chief Jonathan Ventura shared shared statistics showing crime is way down.

Such as:

•Vehicle theft decreased 40 percent

•Robberies decreased 38 percent

•Malicious mischief decreased 16 percent

•Theft decreased 15 percent

•Burglaries decreased 13 percent

•Shoplifting decreased 11 percent

•DUIs decreased 3 percent

Ventura noted that domestic violence was up 4 percent. He announced the launch of a new program in 2019 to address that. The city has hired Bridge Coordination Services as domestic violence coordinator, working as a liaison between victims of domestic violence, prosecution services and police.

There also was an increase of 40 percent in traffic stops and a 24 percent increase in self-initiated officer activity to keep Arlington safer.

The department processed 12 percent more pistol transfers, over 3,400 individual pieces of evidence and over 900 public records requests, which took over 570 hours of staff time to process and respond.