A Centreville man is facing criminal charges after police connected him to a vehicle reported stolen in Reston.
According to the Fairfax County Police Department, detectives responded to the 1600 block of Reston Parkway around 12:35 p.m. on Monday (Nov. 24) after receiving an alert for a 1999 Toyota Camry that had been reported stolen the previous day.
The vehicle was recorded in the area by one of the department’s automated license plate readers.
“Patrol officers quickly located the vehicle in a nearby shopping center,” the FCPD said, referring to the Home Depot shopping center, based on scanner traffic. “Using integrated cameras connected through the Connect Fairfax County program, [Real Time Crime Center] detectives obtained an image of the suspect exiting the vehicle and shared it with patrol officers.”
Police say a 30-year-old Centreville man believed to be involved in the vehicle theft was located nearby and taken into custody “after a short foot pursuit.”
The man was charged with receiving stolen goods, an offense treated as equivalent to larceny in Virginia. He was held at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center on a $5,000 bond, according to the FCPD.
The FCPD trumpeted the case as an example of the value of its Connect Fairfax County program, which launched earlier this year and encourages community members to voluntarily register any security cameras they have with the police. In addition to having their cameras included on a map used by the department’s Real Time Crime Center, participants can give police direct access to the video feeds.
“With over 500 registered and integrated cameras across the county, the program provides detectives and patrol officers with timely information that can significantly accelerate investigations,” the FCPD said.
The Real Time Crime Center also monitors a network of license plate readers throughout the county — technology that police say helps them respond to crime but has raised privacy concerns. The FCPD has denied that data collected by its Flock Safety readers have been used by federal officials for immigration enforcement.
A policy that took effect in June specifies that automated license plate readers can only be used for criminal investigations “where there is reasonable suspicion that a crime was committed and to locate missing or endangered people, or stolen vehicles.
