Alexandria Police Chief Tarrick McGuire received praise from City Council Tuesday night for a 30% overall crime reduction in 2025.
In a presentation to City Council, McGuire said that violent crime went down an average of 29%, a difference of 111 offenses. Overall property crime was down by an average of 30%, a difference of more than 1,300 offenses.
“That is significant,” McGuire said.
McGuire attributed the crime reduction to new weekly crime review meetings between senior officers, a new tourism-based policing unit at Potomac Yard and the King Street corridor, and an increased focus on technology.
“At our core, the department has an emphasis on incorporating evidence-based strategies to address systematic crime issues,” McGuire said, citing the arrest of a Fairfax County man who assaulted two women outside of Metro stations in the city as an example. “I saw officers respond, assess the situation, utilize technology, and [they] identified the suspect and made an arrest within 48 hours.”
As previously reported, the crime reduction comes as the Alexandria Police Department has struggled with staffing and compensation and as the police department’s union is working with the city to increase officer pay in a new collective bargaining agreement.
McGuire said that over the last year, APD developed the Alexandria tourism-oriented policing unit.
“Upon creation, they worked to build relationships with area business in collaboration with our operations,” McGuire said. “More specifically, these retail areas are highly visited by residents and tourists have historically driven larcenies in our city.”
City Councilman Canek Aguirre congratulated McGuire on the crime reduction.
“I think it’s a testament not just to the leadership that we have here in our police department but also to all the officers,” Aguirre said.
McGuire said that the numbers are subject to change. According to the police chief, one homicide in 2025 was recently deemed justifiable, reducing the number of homicides last year to two.
“It’s more than a data evaluation,” he said of APD’s approach. “It is a utilization of implementing police research and science to make operational decisions. It is a process of recognizing policing strategies and responses for all communities should not be the same. They should be prescriptive and not only address crime but address the issues that are symptomatic of that crime.”
McGuire also said that expansion of APD’s license plate reader program has been instrumental in catching criminals.
While McGuire said that all data taken from license plate readers must be lawfully obtained by a warrant and is available to law enforcement agencies within Virginia, City Councilman Abdel Elnoubi advised caution.
“I still feel that there are not enough guardrails, and I still worry about what’s being done with our data,” Elnoubi said. “What worries me is we’re dealing with a federal administration that does not respect the law.”
APD will unveil a five-year safety plan to City Council in the coming months, according to the police chief.
Councilman John Taylor Chapman said he looks forward to seeing the five-year plan and wants to see more digital opportunities for the department.
“I’ve definitely been in support of some of the work that we’ve done,” Chapman said. “I’d be very interested in seeing what other digital technology opportunities there are and be able to really have the conversation within Council, within the community, around that technology, how responsible we can be with that technology.”
