Being out on the water on a boat can be a fun time, but it can also turn dangerous quickly. That has been happening more lately, according to Fairfax County, Virginia, police.
“We’ve had more people getting stuck out here, whether it be capsizing or they think it’s capsizing,” said Maria Stecco, a Fairfax County police officer with the department’s marine unit, which patrols the Potomac River and surrounding waterways.
“We’ve seen an increase this summer in the amount of rescues,” Stecco said. “I would say it’s mostly newer boaters.”
Stecco said that since the COVID-19 pandemic, newer boaters have decided to get a boat for recreational purposes.
Fairfax County is the only D.C.-area police department that has a full-time marine patrol unit.
Its primary patrol areas include the Occoquan/Belmont Bay, Pohick Bay, Little Hunting Creek, Dogue Creek and Belle Haven.
They also patrol the Occoquan Reservoir and Burke Lake.
“Not only do our 911 dispatchers send us, sometimes citizens will get us on the radio,” Stecco said. “Those are typically the ones that you have to keep your ears open for.”
In one incident last month, the marine unit pulled six people from a boat that was sinking.
When responding to a similar situation, seconds matter.
“The waves were literally coming over the bow, and they couldn’t get the water out fast enough,” Stecco said. “They were relieved that we got them, but there was still that shock factor. They were panicked.”
It was a citizen who was not involved who called police over to help.
“Sometimes we get people who just flag us down,” Stecco said.
Officers with the unit also rescued two people this summer after their sailboat capsized near the Woodrow Wilson Bridge.
So far this year, the unit has responded to more than a dozen major calls for service.
