Alexandria, Virginia, police are dealing with an alarming spike in gun violence cases, but there’s better news overall when it comes to violent crime.
A report to the city council this week laid out the statistics comparing crime in 2022 to 2021.
“Overall, our violent crime has decreased just about 12%,” said Amanda Caligiuri, police crime analyst supervisor.
Despite that, gun violence cases are up 100% — from 76 to 152, Caligiuri said. But she added not all those crimes involve the actual firing of a gun.
“You know, possession by a felon or carrying without a license, anything even if it’s not used in the commission of a violent crime is counted in that number,” she said.
One idea is in the works to crack down on gun violence.
The initiative being put together is called Operation Cease Fire, which is a detection technology system which alerts police to a gunfire location. Rollout of the program is expected to start in April, and it could take 10 months to completely install all 300 cameras that are part of the system.
Alexandria police plan to add more officers to deal with the rise in gun violence in the city and all calls for service.
Alexandria Police Chief Don Hayes told the city council, “we are still down 70 (officers) available to work the streets out of 322.”
The report that was discussed at the council meeting said the police department is operating at minimal staffing levels.
