Officials and activists are asking the county courts to make a newly-proposed mental health jail diversion program more inclusive.
Arlington and Fairfax public defenders joined several advocates during a Thursday evening meeting about the proposal, and urged county officials to broaden the mental illnesses diagnoses accepted in the program and not require plea bargains as a participation requirement.
Arlington prosecutors are pressing charges against a Virginia State Police sergeant accused of accidentally firing a gun and not reporting the incident.
Steven Mittendorff is set to go on trial for the charges in the Arlington Circuit Court on October 10, Commonwealth’s Attorney Theo Stamos told ARLnow today (Monday.)
A waitress at the Ballston IHOP restaurant was robbed of cash on a weekday morning this week.
The alleged crime happened around 10:45 a.m. on Tuesday. Police say a man approached the waitress and “stole a billfold containing an undisclosed amount of cash from her hand,” before running off.
Two Arlington men were arrested for separate indecent exposure incidents along Columbia Pike over the past week.
The first happened early Friday morning at the intersection of the Pike and S. Glebe Road, when a man allegedly approached a woman in her vehicle and exposed himself, according to this week’s Arlington County Police Department crime report.
Some officials and residents are asking for more time to review a jail diversion program for people with mental illnesses, saying the county developed it without enough public input.
About a hundred people gathered in the County Board’s meeting room Wednesday afternoon for a meeting called after activists requested a chance to weigh in on the new criminal justice program. Attendees expressed general support for the “Behavioral Health Docket” but worried about its requirement that participants plead guilty to participate, adding that the county needed to listen to more members of the public before finalizing the program.
A recent spate of car thefts and break-ins in North Arlington is continuing.
Arlington County Police are investigating two car thefts and seven car break-ins in the Lyon Park neighborhood this week. The crimes were first reported Wednesday morning on the 2900 block of 2nd Street N. and the 300 block of Edgewood Street, about a half mile south of Clarendon.
Latest Flood Stats — “As of Tuesday morning, the Department of Environmental Services had received 151 calls about damage to private property, storm drain backups, indoor flooding and roadway flooding; The County also investigated more than 30 drainage complaints.” [Arlington County]
Record-Setting Rain Rate — “The 3.30 [inches of rain] recorded between 8:52-9:52 a.m [at Reagan National Airport] was Washington, D.C.’s highest hourly precip report in records dating back to 1936.” [Twitter]
Arlington County is considering a new program to divert people with mental illnesses into treatment instead of jail.
The proposed program would waive incarceration for people with mental illnesses who are convicted of non-violent misdemeanors if they agree to an intensive treatment program supervised by a judge. All the officials who spoke to ARLnow about the program supported it, but some weren’t aware the county was working on the program and said they had little opportunity to add input.
There has been a recent increase in reports of car break-ins in residential portions of North Arlington, with more than a dozen vehicles broken into this week.
Arlington County Police reported this morning that around 10 vehicles were tampered with in the Bellevue Forest neighborhood in the early morning hours.
For at least the second time this month, there has been a series of vehicle tamperings in a North Arlington neighborhood.
The latest series of incidents happened in the Donaldson Run neighborhood, after the previous series of vehicle break-ins in Dominion Hills.
Four people, all in their 20s, were arrested after a wild incident early Sunday morning at Bob and Edith’s Diner on Columbia Pike.
According to Arlington County Police, police were called to the business around 3:30 a.m. and found one of the diners “yelling verbal profanities and acting aggressively towards staff.” While escorting the suspect out of the business, three of his dining companions allegedly attempted to interfere with the responding officer and a scuffle ensued, ending in backup arriving and helping to arrest the group.
A man was arrested early Sunday and charged in a pair of robberies in the Crystal City area.
Police say 41-year-old Christopher Uglialoro first robbed a business at knifepoint on the 1800 block of Jefferson Davis Highway, around 1:45 a.m. He then robbed another nearby business, on the 400 block of 23rd Street S., around 2:15 a.m., according to police.
