Sully District has Second-Highest Number of Murders in Fairfax County

Of Fairfax County Police Department’s eight districts, the Sully District stands out with the second-highest number of murders, yet the lowest total number of index crimes committed during the 2010 calendar year.

Specifically, in 2010 there were three murders, seven incidents of rape, 29 robberies, 27 aggravated assaults, 89 burglaries, 1,139 larcenies and 81 motor vehicle thefts in the Sully District.

Annual crime data for the region were most recently published in the 2010 Fairfax County Police Department (FCPD) Annual Report, which was presented at the Sully District Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) meeting on the evening of Tuesday, Oct. 18. Area residents joined the Sully District Station Commander Captain Purvis Dawson and Assistant Commander Lieutenant John Trace in an engaging discussion about local crime trends.  

“It was important for me to present to the community...where we stand [with respect to other FCPD district stations] and...to give you all an idea of exactly what’s going on in some of the cases that have been closed,” Captain Dawson said toward the end of the meeting, “These are quality of life issues that have been affecting our community.”

The night’s topics covered everything from local distracted driving incidents and hotel prostitution rings to animal control issues and the county’s new realtime crime analysis software.  

The Sully District’s status as the district with the lowest total number of index crimes in 2010 is made more remarkable by the fact that it is also Fairfax County’s largest district in terms of square mileage.

Index crimes include criminal offenses that are divided into eight different categories, a national standard used by the FBI so that crime statistics in states and jurisdictions across the country may be evenly compared. In its 2010 Annual Report, the Fairfax County Police Department reported district data in seven categories: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle theft. Arson is the eighth category.

The Sully District, which contains Centreville, the Town of Clifton, and much of Chantilly, covers approximately 70 square miles and experienced 1,375 crimes last year. 

The Sully District shares its northern border with the Fair Oaks District, which saw 1,773 index crimes in 2010, and its eastern border with the West Springfield District, which saw 2,273. The McLean District experienced the most illegal activity last year, reporting 2,763 crimes. The Franconia District came in close second with 2,751 crimes.  

Though the FCPD Annual Report only contains data through December 2010, some local statistics through September 2011 were presented during Tuesday’s CAC meeting. The Sully District has seen a slight increase in destructions this year, but significant decreases in auto thefts, burglaries, larcenies, robberies and sex offenses and peepings.  

For example, between January and September, there were 497 destructions in 2010 and 531 destructions in 2011, a 6.84% increase. During the same timeframe, there were 79 burglaries in 2010 and 51 in 2011, a 54% decrease.  

The Sully District Station also produces a high number of DWI arrests, an achievement Lieutenant Trace says he’s very proud of. Two Sully Station officers, Silvana Masood and Joseph Woloszyn, have routinely had more DWI arrests than any other officers in the county and have been recognized twice by MADD for having produced the most DWI arrests in the metropolitan region.  

Though the overall number of crimes committed in the Sully District seems to be declining, there’s one area in which Lieutenant Trace says we can expect to see an increase in arrests: hotel and massage parlor prostitution rings. Such sex crimes have not been previously targeted at the district station level, though Trace says the Sully District Police have new operations in place that have already led to several arrests, including two this past weekend.  

“That’s where our numbers should inflate over time,” Liutenant Trace said, “It’s not that the [number of sex] crimes are increasing, it’s just that we’re uncovering them.” 

Captain Dawson and CAC Chair Leslie Jenuleson closed the meeting by brainstorming ideas for future meeting topics and listening to citizen feedback on how the CAC can further engage with the Sully District community.

The next meeting is scheduled for the evening of Tuesday, Nov. 15 and will feature speakers from Parents Reaching Out To Educate Communities Together (P.R.O.T.E.C.T). 

Citizens Advisory Committee meetings are held monthly at the and all members of the community are invited to attend. For more information, please contact CAC Chair Leslie Jenuleson at dljenuleson@verizon.net. 

Editor's Note: A previous version of this article did not include a defintion index crimes.