Men are given the majority of traffic citations and are more likely than women to be arrested in Fairfax County, according to a new report.
Black residents account for almost 40 percent of arrests, despite being just one-tenth of Fairfax County's population.
On June 30, the Fairfax County Police Department released Police Arrest and Traffic Data for 2019. The report looked at gender and demographic information for individuals who received traffic citations and warnings as well as for individuals who were arrested.
According to U.S. Census Bureau data, 50.4 percent of residents identify as female and 49.6 percent identify as male. However, 63 percent of traffic citations and 65 percent of traffic warnings were given to men. About 76 percent of individuals arrested were male.
Race and ethnicity data from Fairfax County’s website shows that just 9.4 percent of Fairfax County residents are Black. Black men received 17.9 percent of traffic citations, 24.5 percent of traffic warnings and accounted for 38.5 percent of arrests.
A white Fairfax County police officer was arrested for excessive use of force in June following an incident in the Mount Vernon District involving a Black resident.
Police Chief Edwin C. Roessler said after the incident that the Fairfax County Police Department is committed to reform and he acknowledge that there are racial disparities in when and how police officers use force.
“Our strategy for making Fairfax a safer and stronger county has been predicated on strong relationships with the communities we serve and creating a more transparent and accountable police department,” Roessler said, the Washington Post reported.
The data presented in the June 30 report did not break down home residency information of drivers stopped or individuals arrested — some of the drivers cited, for example, may be from outside Fairfax County or outside Virginia.
Information on Hispanic individuals was not included as part of the report because it is considered an ethnicity not a race according to Virginia State Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s NCIC standardized code manuals. This changed on July 1, 2020 when the Virginia State Police expanded their data coding to include Hispanic and that data will be included in next year's report.
Approximately 51.2 percent of county residents are white, 18.9 percent are Asian or Pacific Islander, 16.2 percent are Hispanic/Latino, 9.4 percent are Black and 4.2 percent fall under other.
When it comes to race, of 114,841 drivers who received traffic citations in 2019, 70.2 percent where white, 17.9 percent were Black, 8.6 percent were Asian. For 2.5 percent, race was not identified and 0.8 percent were American Indian or Alaskan Native.
Of 18,356 drivers who received traffic warnings, 62.5 percent were white, 24.5 percent were Black, 9.6 percent were Asian and for 3.3 percent race was not identified.
For arrests made in 2019, of 34,330 individuals arrested 57.2 percent were white, 38.5 percent were Black, 4.2 percent were Asian, 0.05 percent were American Indian or Alaskan Native and for 0.01 percent race was not identified.
The City of Alexandria released their Basic Analysis of Traffic Citation Data for 2019 in May. More information can be found here.
