Fairfax County Arrest Statistics for 2024 and 2025

Each year, the Fairfax County Police Department publishes arrest data showing the criminal charges associated with arrests made throughout the county.

Unlike the department’s annual crime statistics, which track reported criminal incidents, this data focuses on arrests. It provides insight into the offenses that most often result in someone being taken into custody.

We reviewed the official 2024 and 2025 arrest data to identify the most common charges and compare how arrest patterns changed from one year to the next.

Understanding the Fairfax County Arrest Data

It is important to understand that the numbers below represent criminal charges and not necessarily individual arrests.

One person may be arrested and charged with several offenses. For example, an individual arrested for driving while intoxicated could also face charges for driving on a suspended license, drug possession, or another related offense.

Each of those charges can appear separately in the arrest data.

Most Common Fairfax County Arrest Charges

Charge	2024	2025	Change
Public Intoxication	1,671	1,511	9.6% decrease
Criminal Trespassing	1,583	1,247	21.2% decrease
Possession of Schedule I or II Controlled Substances	1,513	1,052	30.5% decrease
Failure to Appear, Misdemeanor	1,046	976	6.7% decrease
Simple Assault	910	779	14.4% decrease
Failure to Appear, Felony	894	689	22.9% decrease

Several of the most common arrest charges appeared less frequently in 2025 than they did in 2024.

Public intoxication remained one of the most common charges in both years. Fairfax County recorded 1,671 public intoxication charges in 2024 and 1,511 in 2025, a decrease of approximately 9.6 percent.

Criminal trespassing charges declined from 1,583 in 2024 to 1,247 in 2025. That represents a decrease of approximately 21.2 percent.

The largest decrease among the charges shown above involved possession of Schedule I or II controlled substances. Those charges declined from 1,513 in 2024 to 1,052 in 2025, a decrease of approximately 30.5 percent.

Failure to Appear Arrests Remain Common

Failure to appear charges also accounted for a substantial number of arrests during both years.

Fairfax County recorded 1,046 misdemeanor failure to appear charges in 2024 and 976 in 2025.

Felony failure to appear charges declined from 894 in 2024 to 689 in 2025.

Together, the numbers show that arrests related to missed court appearances continue to represent a significant portion of Fairfax County arrest activity.

Assault Arrests in Fairfax County

Simple assault also remained among the more frequently recorded charges.

There were 910 simple assault charges recorded in 2024 compared with 779 in 2025. This represents a decrease of approximately 14.4 percent.

Other assault-related charges also appear frequently in the arrest data, including charges involving family or household members.

Why Larceny Arrests Are Difficult to Compare

Larceny is one of the most common offenses appearing in the Fairfax County arrest data. However, comparing larceny charges between 2024 and 2025 requires some caution.

On July 1, 2025, Virginia increased the dollar amount that separates petit larceny from grand larceny. Because of that change, the Fairfax County Police Department updated some of the charge descriptions used in the 2025 arrest data.

For example, a charge that appears as “Petit Larceny: Less Than $200” in the 2024 data may appear as “Petit Larceny: Less Than $1,000” in the 2025 data. Although the wording is different, both charge descriptions refer to the same general offense under different versions of Virginia law.

As a result, comparing individual larceny charge descriptions from one year to the next can be misleading. Some of the differences reflect changes in Virginia law rather than actual changes in the number of larceny arrests.

What the 2024 and 2025 Arrest Data Shows

Overall, the 2024 and 2025 arrest data reveals several consistent trends:

Public intoxication remained one of the most common arrest charges.
Criminal trespassing continued to account for a significant number of arrests.
Drug possession charges remained common, although they declined in 2025.
Failure to appear charges continued to represent a substantial share of arrests.
Assault-related offenses remained among the most frequently recorded violent crimes.
Larceny continued to be one of the most common offense categories, although changes in Virginia law affected some charge descriptions.
Several major offense categories recorded fewer charges in 2025 than in 2024.

These statistics should not be interpreted as overall Fairfax County crime rates. They reflect charges associated with arrests and not the total number of crimes reported to police or the number of people ultimately convicted of an offense.