Fairfax County police aim to export successes they’ve had fighting retail theft in Tysons to other corridors across the county.
Despite targeted efforts, “shoplifting remains our Achilles’ heel,” Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis told the Board of Supervisors during a Safety and Security Committee meeting last week.
While shoplifting cases were down in the Tysons and McLean area for 2024 compared to 2023, year-over-year rates were higher in every other area of the county, Davis said in the May 20 briefing.
“More work needs to be done,” Davis said. “We are getting there.”
Tysons and McLean saw 1,869 shoplifting cases in 2024, a 19.8% decline from the previous year. However, countywide, there were 9,615 cases, a 17.7% increase, according to figures presented by the Fairfax County Police Department.
Looked at another way, the McLean Police District represented nearly 29% of all shoplifting cases countywide in 2023 and 19% in 2024.
Concerted efforts through the Tysons Urban Team, an increase in monitoring cameras and cooperation of retailers has helped put a dent in retail theft at the malls and other businesses in Tysons, FCPD leaders said.
The department’s goal now is to replicate its operations in Tysons, where possible, in other retail-intense areas like Reston Town Center, the Mosaic District in Merrifield and Springfield.
Tysons benefits from geography that allows high policing visibility in a “really tight, concentrated area,” said Bob Blakley, the FCPD’s assistant chief for operations.
Buy-in from retailers is essential, Blakley told the Board of Supervisors. A business that waits 30 minutes to call police after a theft incident reduces the likelihood that case will be solved by 95%, he said.
Even in cases where suspects are arrested, securing a conviction becomes more difficult if the affected retailers don’t send loss-prevention personnel to testify in court, Davis said.
According to Chief Davis, retailers are becoming “much more proactive” than they used to be. He hopes to use cooperative retail outlets as ambassadors charged with spreading the word and winning over retailers that might not be providing as much cooperation right now.
Based on preliminary figures, the county saw 2,220 shoplifting cases in the first quarter of 2025 — the exact same total reported during the first three months of 2024. Davis called the figures “potentially encouraging,” but noted that shoplifting incidents recently spiked in the Mount Vernon area.
Fairfax isn’t alone in grappling with shoplifting and retail theft.
“It’s just such a voluminous crime” nationally, Davis said.
At the committee meeting, Springfield District Supervisor Pat Herrity pushed his colleagues to consider using the county attorney’s office to prosecute misdemeanor theft cases, rather than giving discretion to the commonwealth’s attorney.
Virginia state law classifies retail theft as a misdemeanor if the total value of items taken is less than $1,000.
While some cases involve low-value items or amounts of cash, the FCPD has said the county is seeing an increase in organized theft rings that steal thousands of dollars in merchandise.
