Crime Data FAQ

Data on Offenses and Arrests are generated from Arlington County Police Department police reports. These reports are submitted to and verified by Virginia State Police to comply with National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), prior to submitting these records to the FBI for inclusion in their annual Uniform Crime Report.

National Incident-Based Reporting Systems (NIBRS) data are reported as Group A Offenses and Group B/Other. Group A Offenses are separated into three categories: Crimes Against Persons, Crimes Against Property and Crime Against Society. Additional information on what offenses are included in these categories and a definition of each offenses is available through the FBI. You can also see offense categories within those larger descriptions in the Case Offenses Map in the Offense Category dropdown menu.

In our presentation of data, we have isolated Carjacking (a Robbery, classified as a Crime Against Property) separately, in response to community interest in those offenses.

The data is updated weekly on Wednesday mornings.

No, not every call or information reported to the Police Department involves a criminal offense. 

Police reports documenting criminal offenses have unique case numbers, and include one or more offenses. The records contained in the Data Hub include all reports the Police Department submits to the state, and a few others, but this is not an exhaustive list of incidents reported to police. Additionally, some police reports documenting things such as lost or found property or natural deaths are not reported to the state, and not included in the Data Hub. Other reportable events such traffic collisions are tracked by Virginia State Police and Arlington County's Vision Zero Program.

All data addresses are offset to ensure the privacy of victims and witnesses.

You can query specific police beats (patrol areas) or civic associations using the multi-pick list in the upper right of the Case Offenses Dashboard. When you select a beat or civic association, the remaining elements adjust to that filter. Within the Case Offenses Map, you can select a beat or civic association, and the map, associated tables, and charts will filter to only include offenses in that area. For a visualization of these areas, visit the police beats map and civic association map. 

A case report, also known as a police report, can document more than one criminal offense. For example, if a home is burglarized, and items are taken from the home, and the vehicle is also stolen, that is one case report documenting two offenses: 1 Burglary offense, and 1 Motor Vehicle Theft offense. For NIBRS reporting, only one offense is counted if a report is taken with more than one of the same type of offense. For example, if three individuals are shoplifting merchandise from a store at the same time, that is 3 Shoplifting offenses on one case report, but because they are all larceny offenses, it only counts as 1 offense submitted to the FBI. Additional information on NIBRS data submission rules are available online.

The Code of Virginia protects the disclosure of juvenile law enforcement records and criminal offenses that specifically identify the involvement of juveniles, such as Abuse and Neglect of Child, are excluded from the Crime Data Hub.

You can use your cursor or zoom in and out using the + - buttons in the upper right of the map, or by using the scroll wheel on your mouse to zoom in and out to pan around the map. You can select incidents in the map using the left button of your mouse, or you can rectangle-select a number of incidents using the rectangle-select tool within the map. As you select incidents, the overall charts change. To de-select those records, you can either click the large “Clear All Filters” button at the upper right, or click anywhere else in the map that does not have a case offense.

The two blank points are intentionally placed anchor points. They are designed to automatically zoom and center the map on Arlington, ensuring the displayed data is focused and relevant to our area of interest. This feature enhances the usability of the map, making it easier to view specific local data.

An arrest may occur at an address unrelated to the offense location. For instance, officers may document a criminal incident and during the course of the investigation, identify the suspect and obtain a warrant for their arrest. This arrest may occur at a location outside Arlington County. Additionally, suspects may be notified they are wanted and turn themselves in at Police Headquarters.

The Crime Data Hub reflects all documented criminal case offenses and charges obtained by ACPD. All charges obtained by ACPD are submitted to the state. If there are multiple charges in the same case report, only one charge per crime code will be reflected in state reporting. This can account for variances between the Crime Data Hub and Virginia State Police reported data.

The Crime Data Hub is published using Microsoft Power BI. There are limitations to Microsoft Power BI and, due to recent changes, exporting data is not currently supported by the software.

By selecting on individual elements in the charts, those elements will be isolated across all other charts. To unselect those items, either click the Clear All Filters button at the upper right, or click anywhere else in the chart area.

For drop-down menus for offenses, police beats, or civic associations, use the multi-check boxes and date range menus to select as many options as you want.

Unfortunately, not at this time. Currently, offense data is limited by ranges of year, quarter, and month. Arrest data are searchable by custom date ranges. This is an improvement we are looking to implement in future editions of the Crime Data Hub.

Feedback can be emailed to ACPDDataHub@arlingtonva.us.