The Rockville City Police Department’s commitment to community policing resulted in reduced crime rates for 2023, RCPD Chief Victor V. Brito told the Mayor and Council in presenting a crime report with data that contrasts with that of other municipalities across the country.
While criminality has risen locally, regionally and nationally since 2020, “Virtually all of our data and all of our crime has been down in the last year,” Brito said in giving an overview of the report to the Mayor and Council on Feb. 26. “And that’s not through happenstance or reverse osmosis. That’s through the hard work and selfless dedication of the men and women of the Rockville City Police Department.”
Each year, the department prepares a crime report under the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System.
Overall, between 2022 and 2023, crimes against people, which include homicides, assaults and sex offenses, decreased 10.6%, from 501 offenses in 2022 to 448 offenses in 2023.
Crimes against property, including burglaries, robberies, thefts and vandalism, increased by 1.7% (from 1,831 to 1,862). While the number of carjackings is rising locally, regionally and nationally, Rockville saw a 68% decrease, from eight in 2022 to three in 2023.
Crimes against society, including drugs, prostitution and weapons offenses, decreased 28.7%, from 129 to 92, including a 39.8% decrease in drug/narcotic violations.
RCPD responded to almost 70% of the 25,139 calls for service in the city in 2023, alongside the Montgomery County Police Department’s First District Station and the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office.
Recent changes could impact these numbers. The Montgomery County Department of Police’s recent decision to redeploy personnel assigned to the county’s First District to other areas of Montgomery County has led to an increase in the number of service calls handled by RCPD officers. RCPD responded to 88% of the calls within the city limits in January 2024, versus 71% of calls during the same period in January 2018, a pre-pandemic period used for comparison.
Find video of the presentation to the Mayor and Council with the Feb. 26 meeting listing at www.rockvillemd.gov/AgendaCenter.
The report will be included in an annual report published by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments this summer. Find it when it is posted this spring at www.rockvillemd.gov/police.