The numbers are in, and reports and arrests for crime in the Historic Triangle in 2012 have remained relatively stable when compared to prior years.
The Virginia State Police recently released the 2012 edition of Crime in Virginia, a report that looks at crime numbers from throughout the state, including those reported by Historic Triangle law enforcement organizations. The numbers track everything from murder to disorderly conduct, offering insight into the frequency of incidents reported to police and arrests.
The numbers reveal that certain crimes — larceny, simple assault, vandalism, fraud, drug offenses, drunken driving and public drunkenness — are reported to area police at a far higher rate than other offenses. Many more people are arrested for those crimes than for anything else in the area.
Reports include unfounded and false reports, as well as reports where the victim decided not to press charges.
Violent Crimes
On the whole, police throughout the region produced arrests for about half of the reports for crimes like murder, robbery and kidnapping. These rates are higher than more commonly reported crimes, such as larceny and vandalism.
Murder can also comprise attempted murder, as is the case with the four reported 2010 arrests in Williamsburg — all of which stem from a 2009 incident.
There were six murders in the Historic Triangle between 2010 and 2012. The only unsolved murder in the Historic Triangle since 2010 is that of Aakir Omar Ali, a 37-year-old man found dead in January 2012 in James City County.
While York County recorded at least half as many arrests as reports in forcible sex crimes, James City County and Williamsburg lagged behind in 2012. For example, Williamsburg had one arrest for eight reported offenses.
When asked about the discrepancy, Maj. Greg Riley of the Williamsburg Police Department said it is often a case of small sample size. Williamsburg saw six reported offenses with five arrests in 2011 and 12 reported offenses with eight arrests in 2010 — fluctuations in small numbers tend to be more pronounced. 
Maj. Stephen Rubino of the James City County Police Department said when a forcible sexual offense is committed by a stranger, there’s a “higher likelihood for that case not to resolve in an arrest because the offender is not immediately known.” He also said that in some instances when the offender is known, the victim or commonwealth’s attorney may elect to not proceed with charges.
Fraud
Fraud charges encompass a wide range of offenses, such as identity theft, Internet scams and using credit cards illegitimately.
Lt. Dennis Ivey of the York-Poquoson Sheriff’s Office said fraud charges often come from big box stores, where people don’t always check IDs during transactions.
In 2012, there were 271 reported cases of fraud in York County with 36 arrests. Ivey said reports of people running scams on Craigslist and in foreign countries — those obnoxious emails that ask you to send money in order to receive much more money back — have been on the rise in recent years.
“We’ve had people losing thousands of dollars when people say you’ve won the Canadian lottery and they wire thousands of dollars before they find out they haven’t won anything,” Ivey said. Those crimes are difficult to investigate, as the suspects often reside in other states or countries.
Ivey said the best way to combat fraud is for retailers to check the ID cards of people who pay using credit cards.
“Feel free to call if you see something that seems too good to be true,” Ivey said.
Assault
Simple assault constitutes the overwhelming majority of assault cases in the Historic Triangle. They typically stem from someone hitting another person or threatening to hit them, Rubino said. Domestic assaults are also considered simple assault. The line between the misdemeanor of simple assault and the felony aggravated assault is in injury.
James City County had the highest number of simple assault reports with 759, but York County had more total arrests with 258 of their 427 reports.
Larceny and Burglary
Like fraud charges, larceny also encompasses a wide range of offenses — everything from shoplifting to breaking into a vehicle.
From 2010 to 2012, larceny is the most reported crime in the Historic Triangle. It also produces some of the highest arrest totals in each locality.
In 2012, the breakdown was as follows: 227 reported larcenies in Williamsburg with 54 arrests; 796 reported larcenies in James City County with 172 arrests; and 1,203 reported larcenies in York County with 483 arrests.
“There are so many variables,” Ivey said of larceny offenses. “You have people who misname the suspects, sometimes they don’t want to prosecute them when somebody steals from the residence.”
Rubino said the number of vehicle break-ins has climbed in recent years. He said people often don’t lock their vehicles.
Another form of larceny is larceny from a building, where someone who has access to a building takes something. That can be a family member stealing from another family member or an employee who steals from their place of employment.
Burglary happens when somebody breaks into a building and commits another offense inside that building. So while a copper theft — like those that have been happening in James City County recently — is a larceny because the copper is usually stolen from an open-air area, breaking the window of a house and stealing something from the inside is a burglary.
Drug and Alcohol Offenses
Many of the people arrested in the Historic Triangle are arrested on drug and alcohol offenses, which include driving under the influence, possession of narcotics and public drunkenness.
DUI arrest numbers have been trending down since 2010, while narcotics arrests have remained relatively stable.
“Marijuana is definitely the drug that we see the most,” Riley said of Williamsburg. “More hardcore drugs are rare. I do see reports come across my desk for people not possessing valid prescriptions. Big drug cases, like you see in the movies, those things aren’t happening too often.”
Rubino echoed that sentiment.
“The overwhelming majority of drug arrests are for marijuana possession,” he said. “The average drug arrest is going to be an encounter with somebody for a matter other than that they’re suspected of being in possession of drugs. For instance, a traffic stop and the officer smells marijuana. Or an arrest for a DUI and in the search they recover the marijuana.”
Ivey said about 42 percent of the 2012 drug offenses in York County were marijuana offenses.
Williamsburg had the most arrests for drunkenness almost across the board , which Riley attributed to the density of the city compared to the two counties. He also said a concentrated presence of students and tourists can cause incidents of public drunkenness to climb.
“Throughout the year we participate in selective enforcement which targets people who drive under the influence,” Rubino said. He said the Department of Motor Vehicles awards grants, which James City County Police receive and use to pay officers for overtime work where they patrol the streets looking for drunken drivers.
He said they also run DUI checkpoints.
Motor Vehicle Theft
Motor vehicle thefts are one area where there were comparatively fewer arrests in 2012 than reports. The only person arrested for that crime was picked up in York County. The discrepancy between reports, 54 in the Historic Triangle last year, and the one arrest is a trend that has remained constant in recent years.
“Unless [a suspect] is discovered with the vehicle, the property is discarded at some other location without any kind of suspect identifiers,” Riley said. “Most people who steal cars use them for a short amount of time and then discard them.”
From 2010 to 2012, there were 205 reported motor vehicle thefts across the Historic Triangle — three people were arrested for the crime.
Riley said stolen vehicles are often recovered, though police have little to work with unless forensic techniques, such as fingerprint analysis, can find a match in an existing database.
Ivey said in other cases, somebody who knows the owner of the vehicle may have used it without authorization, leading to the reported theft. Once the car is returned to its rightful owner, some of those people decline to prosecute, ending the police’s involvement in the matter.
You can access the website with the Virginia State Police’s Crime in Virginia report by clicking here.
