Blast From the Past, Fairfax County Crime Goes Back to the 70’s

Crime in Fairfax County continued its descent in 2006, reaching lows not seen since the early 1970s, even as the county’s population has doubled over the past 30 years.

According to statistics released last week, Fairfax residents reported 17,108 serious crimes — homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny and auto theft. That was a 6.9 percent drop from 2005, and the lowest total in Fairfax police statistics dating from 1970. The closest was 17,835 in 1972, when the county’s population was about 500,000. More than 1 million people live in Fairfax now.

Read the rest of Tom Jackson’s story here.