Alexandria City Public Schools saw a 26% increase in student arrests last school year, and a disproportionate number of arrested students are Black males.
There were 58 ACPS students arrested last school year, according to a school safety report to be presented to the School Board on Thursday. There were also 32 weapons-related incidents, 100 students injured, 112 fights/assaults and five reports of sexual misconduct.
Alexandria’s new speed cameras have already issued over 3,500 warnings. Soon, the city says those will become speeding tickets.
The City ran a two-week warning period at the end of the last school year and will start another one beginning Monday, Aug. 21, as the new school year starts. The City warned that the speed cameras will begin ticketing starting Sept. 18.
The City of Alexandria is considering some improvements to sidewalks to make it easier and safer for students to walk to school.
The City is considering curb extensions, which bump out the sidewalk at corners or mid-block to shorten the crossing distance, make pedestrians more visible, and slow turning vehicles. Curb extensions were recommended in the city’s Complete Streets Design Guidelines.
Tonight is National Night Out — an event where Alexandria’s first responders interface with the communities. This year’s celebrations come after a rough week with the city rattled by multiple shootings, including one homicide.
“On Tuesday, August 1, 2023, The City of Alexandria will celebrate National Night Out (NNO), a day designed to heighten crime prevention awareness, generate support for anti-crime programs, and send a message to criminals that neighborhoods are organized, and working with law enforcement to help prevent crime,” the city said in a release.
This upcoming Independence Day, the Washington Regional Alcohol Program (WRAP) is bringing back the SoberRide program.
The program runs from 4 p.m. on Tuesday, July 4th, to 4 a.m. on Wednesday, July 5.
Amid a crime surge, Alexandria Police Chief Don Hayes said Monday night that the police force is seeing a “plethora” of guns out on the streets.
Alexandria’s gun-related crime jumped 100% in 2022 over 2021, and Hayes says that overall crime is up 27% for the year.
After years in development, a new agreement was released between Alexandria City Public Schools and the Alexandria Police Department to provide school resource officers (SROs) at the city’s high school and middle schools.
The new memorandum of understanding between ACPS and APD has been a long time coming. SROs were defunded by the City Council in last year’s budget, and Alexandria City Public Schools spent the first few months of the 2021-2022 school year without the officers in its high school and middle schools. The officers were returned after ACPS pleaded with Council for their return in the wake of multiple incidents with weapons in schools.
A new survey shows widespread support for the installation of metal detectors within Alexandria City Public Schools.
There were 4,374 respondents to the survey, which ACPS opened on Feb. 24 and closed on March 8. Included in the survey were 1,181 students, 609 staff, 2,295 family/guardians, and 289 community members. About 85% of survey respondents supported using weapons screening equipment in all or some schools, and 58% of respondents want the metal detectors in every school.
The Alexandria Police Department (APD) announced today that it will start rolling out its body worn camera program in April.
In a release, APD said the deployment will be on a rolling basis, with the goal of every sworn personnel being issued a camera within the next year.
Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) leadership presented some recommendations for a school safety plan to City Council members, but faced some pushback that the process is moving too slowly and occasionally missing the point.
ACPS leadership presented interim Superintendent Melanie Kay-Wyatt’s recommendations for a School Law Enforcement Partnership (SLEP) in a joint City Council/School Board meeting yesterday. Broadly, the recommendations emphasize continued funding of school resource officers along with a reexamination of protecting student confidentiality and new de-escalation strategies.
The City of Alexandria has been picked for a Safe Streets grant that will help the city take another look at seven high-crash intersections around Alexandria’s West End.
The grant approval comes as Alexandria is going through a sweep of safety audits looking at some of the city’s most crash-prone intersections. The projects involve examining the causes of the crashes at the intersection and providing analysis, as well as a community engagement and design process.
