Crime in Arlington fell last year for the first time since 2018, with reported serious offenses down 10.9% — largely driven by a drop in property crimes ranging from larceny to motor vehicle theft.
The decline, detailed in the police department’s annual report published yesterday (Wednesday), reverses a yearslong climb. ARLnow flagged the drop in December using preliminary numbers.
Property crimes, the most common type reported in Arlington, fell 14.9% in 2025, with about 1,287 fewer reported offenses than in 2024. Motor vehicle thefts were nearly cut in half, dropping to 222. Robberies fell 28%, and reported “larceny/theft offenses”— the single largest category of crime in the county — were down 14.4%, from 4,416 to 3,782.
Roughly 42% of all police reports last year were filed online.
Not everything dropped. Reports of intimidation — threats made without a weapon — jumped 46.2%, from 132 to 193, which the department attributed largely to online threats.
Arrests for lower-level “Group B” offenses such as disorderly conduct and trespassing also rose, climbing 20.3% overall.
The 10.9% decrease in crime only accounts for what police call “Group A” offenses, the more serious crimes that agencies nationwide report to the FBI. Those Group A crimes had been rising for years, with ACPD reporting a 6% increase in 2023, before peaking at 11,603 offenses in 2024 and falling to 10,341 last year.
Arlington remained on the safer end compared to the rest of the state: its rate of crimes against people was 934 per 100,000 residents, below Virginia’s rate of 1,215.
The report also pointed to progress on opioids. Incidents involving opioids fell to 80, with three fatal overdoses — down from 28 in 2021, and the lowest totals “in over five years.” Opioid incidents involving juveniles dropped to a single case, from 32 in 2023.
That decline came alongside the county’s broader prevention efforts. Officers administered Narcan, the overdose-reversal medication, 16 times in 2025 — part of 141 deployments since the program began in 2019. Residents also turned in 3,501 pounds of unused prescription medication through the county’s disposal program last year, bringing the total to more than 18,000 pounds since 2018.
Police seized 117 illegally owned guns in 2025, four of them un-serialized “ghost” guns — down from 134 firearms and 15 ghost guns in 2023. “Recovering illegally possessed firearms remains a key focus,” the report said.
On the roads, the department leaned harder on enforcement. DUI arrests surged 46.1% and traffic citations and warnings rose 25.9% over the year. ACPD also added 18 speed cameras in school zones through its automated PhotoSPEED program, which Chief Andy Penn said furthered “safety efforts within our school zones.”
Despite the overall decline, the year had several serious flashpoints. The county recorded one homicide in 2025 — a man charged with fatally shooting his mother inside a Ballston-Virginia Square residence in August. And on March 29, police shut down the Fashion Centre at Pentagon City after responding to multiple fights and finding a large, disorderly crowd in the food court; the mall was closed and shoppers evacuated at police request, and three teenagers were arrested.
To address the recent run of higher crime, the department reactivated its Community Action Team in May, targeting what it called “shoplifting and larceny incidents escalating to robberies” and aiming to curb juvenile crime over the summer. Staffing remains the longer-term concern.
“Police staffing continues to be a significant challenge within the law enforcement profession,” Penn wrote.
Arlington recently approved raising the starting salary for officers to $90,012, which Penn said makes it “the highest in the region.” The raise takes effect next summer.
