D.C. Area Slayings Climbed In 2005

After two gang-related homicides in Fairfax, county police obtained funds to add four more investigators to their gang unit. They also started more programs to help steer youths away from gangs before they join.

Gang activity has also spread to such lower-crime areas Loudoun and Howard, where police say it continues to be a concern even though violent gang crime is low. In Loudoun, authorities recorded 28 gang-related crimes through June, all but 10 graffiti. In Howard, police documented 57 incidents related to MS-13 and identified 55 MS-13 members who have been involved in criminal activity.

In Prince George's, where there were eight gang-related homicides last year, violence not related to gangs was most pronounced. Overall, violent crime there increased about 13 percent, with robberies, assaults and carjackings up from 2004.

Property crime in Prince George's decreased 3 percent, pushing total crime down by almost one percent.

Most of the homicides were near the dangerous District-Prince George's border, across which criminals have routinely slipped back and forth. Several months ago, city and county police agreed to work together to target border crime.

Prince George's police found little to connect the killings in their county other than the general categories of guns and drugs. The majority of the victims -- 124 -- were black. There was an increase in the number of Hispanics killed, from 19 in 2004 to 26 last year.

The majority of the killings happen after two men argue and one or both pull out guns, police said. In an effort to cut crime, High has hired more officers for the understaffed department, targeted "hot spot" crime areas and upgraded technology.

Ultimately, High said, crime is as much a social problem as a police issue. "As density grows, that creates issues," High said. "It comes down to rage, tremendous human rage."

Outside experts and former police officials have said they believe that crime-prone populations in the District moved to the county in the last decade.

The migration began in the early 1990s as people tried to escape the city's high rate of violence. Others moved because the city knocked down several public housing buildings over the years, and the problems followed them, the experts and former police officials have said.

"When you have gentrification, there is another word that goes along with that: displacement," said Andrew Karmen, a criminologist and sociology professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. "People bring their problems with them where they settle."

That also happened in New York in the 1990s, when the city was wrestling with huge crime waves. Officials in Upstate New York, including those in Albany, Rochester and Buffalo, complained of having to deal with displaced criminals, Karmen said.

Ramsey credits better computerized tracking and analysis of crime and more targeted enforcement for helping drive down the District's number of killings in recent years. In 1997, a year before Ramsey became chief, the city recorded 301 killings. Overall city crime dropped about 7 percent last year.

"When you look at what is going on in the region and other cities, for us not to go up is good," Ramsey said. "I see progress."

Despite the overall drop, there have recently been increases in two of the city's most serious crime categories: robberies and killings. The spikes prodded police officials early last month to declare a crime emergency, which suspended portions of the police union contract. Commanders now have greater flexibility in setting officers' schedules to respond to crime spikes. Ramsey said he expects to lift the emergency in coming days because the spate of deadly violence and robberies appears to have ebbed.

Varied Crime Challenges

The only area in the suburban region where homicides dropped was in mostly rural Southern Maryland. In fast-growing Charles County, for example, the number of killings fell from seven to five, the majority related to a domestic issue. At the same time, auto thefts increased by 44 percent, making that and robberies the biggest crime challenge.

In Anne Arundel, where homicides remained about steady from 2004 to 2005, police have been confronting the arrival of the drug methamphetamine. In Annapolis, police say Hispanic immigrants have increasingly been the targets of robberies.

In Frederick, police say the biggest problem is traffic violations.

In Alexandria, police noted an increase this year in robberies, most of which were commercial. The city had its share of crime last year, notably a January knife attack on several elderly patients, allegedly by an employee of the retirement home where they lived; the September stabbing of three police officers in Old Town, allegedly by a T.C. Williams High School honor student; and the shooting of a Washington Wizard player in a carjacking attempt.

Loudoun residents have been facing a theft problem. They "have a tendency to keep their doors open and not lock their cars and leave their purses in their cars or their iPods in their cars," sheriff's spokesman Kraig Troxell said.

And Northern Virginia was home to one of the region's most-followed crimes: the cell phone bandit's bank robberies. On Nov. 4, Candice Martinez, 19, robbed an Ashburn Wachovia bank, the last of four area banks she hit. Video footage released by Loudoun authorities showed Martinez chatting on her cell phone during the heist, leading to her nickname. Martinez and her accomplice, Dave C. Williams, pleaded guilty.

In the Prince William area, including Manassas and Manassas Park, the number of homicides rose from 9 in 2004 to 13 in 2005. Prince William County police would not comment on the crime.

Staff writers Karin Brulliard, Ruben Castaneda, Tom Jackman, Fredrick Kunkle, Ernesto Londoño, Amit R. Paley, Joshua Partlow, Eric Rich, Ian Shapira and Jamie Stockwell contributed to this report.