News and notes from Reston (tm).

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Operation Summer Heat: The Heat Was On

Picture 1.jpgHey, remember that time Fairfax County Police decided to crack down on Reston gang activity by coming up with a kick-ass sounding name for its patrols along South Reston pathways? Well, given that Labor Day's over and everyone's going back to school, "Operation Summer Heat" is officially over, with an impressive box score: 42 arrests.

Operation Summer Heat, a four-week enforcement campaign designed to address and deter criminal gang activity that kicked off in July, netted 42 arrests with a total of 52 charges ranging from gang participation to larceny to prostitution. A 12-person team of uniformed and plain-clothes officers along with officers on bicycles patrolled targeted areas of the Reston Police District with the goal of maintaining the safety of the district’s trails and pathways.
Prostitution... in Reston? Really? Talk about putting the "party" into "party walls."
In addition to crime-fighting patrols, Crime Prevention Officers partnered with other county agencies on National Night Out to engage and educate residents about criminal street gangs. Members of the Fairfax County Human Services Department passed out flyers to parents to share how after-school activities can prevent children from getting involved in gangs. Curfew checks were also conducted with the assistance of the Juvenile Probation Unit.

Captain Deborah Burnett, Commander of the Reston District Station said there was a noticeable decline in the number of criminal violations observed during Operation Summer Heat. “The word on the street was out and may have contributed to the fact that no gang assaults, street robberies or malicious woundings occurred in areas where gang activity is known to be higher.”

No malicious woundings? Win! Wouldn't it have been embarrassing, though, to be a malicious wounder, about to go on a malicious wounding spree, and the bicycle brigade stopped it before you could either be malicious or wound?
First Lieutenant T.J. Rogers, Assistant Commander, noted that “there was one attempted malicious wounding, but Summer Heat officers were nearby and quickly intervened to protect the victim and arrest the suspect.”
Awkward!
Both commanders feel Operation Summer Heat was successful in sending the message that the police are out and criminal activity will not be tolerated.
Awesome. Coming up next: Operation Harvest Heat?

7 comments:

  1. Is this why they've been stationing cops at toll booths on the Dulles Toll Road lately?

    I always wonder what they're looking for when they do that - never seems to be whatever I'm doing, thankfully....

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  2. They were stationed at the toll boths during the Fourth of July terror alert in 2004. Even the terrorists know that the only way in and out of Reston is by way of the toll booths.

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  3. Peasant From Less Sought After South RestonSeptember 8, 2009 at 8:45 PM

    We may have Operation Summer Heat here in Reston, but at least I don't think we'll ever need Operation Common Sense like some people in Vienna apparently do, to judge by the following report lifted verbatim from today's Faitfax Times:

    Police solve perplexing dilemma in Vienna

    "A woman called Vienna Police to inquire about some “mysterious stickers” she had received in the mail for her Virginia license plates. The woman said she had paid the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles to renew her tags which expire in 2009, for two years. She went on to say that inside the envelope returned from the DMV were two odd-looking equal signs. She told police she wondered what she was supposed to do with them.
    The dispatcher replied that she should rotate the equal signs 90 degrees and see that they were in fact 2011 “11” stickers."

    You couldn't make this stuff up if you tried!

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  4. The cops at the toll booths are checking for expired registrations and inspections.

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  5. I see as much, or more tagging and congregating gaggles of unsupervised kids as before summer heat began, operated or ended. Same trouble, same poor job by the cops.

    As usual, Fairfax county can send rescuers around the world for all kinds of disasters, but it can't keep the peace in "less sought after south reston."

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  6. I know where they are patroling. I took my current gig for the 6-mile Reston/Herndon commute. 5 years ago it was one speed trap/week. Now it is at least one speed trap/day.

    Chasing bad guys is a cost center. Harvesting traffic fines from commuters is a profit center. Anon 10:21, have I explained your observation?

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  7. The Convict in the South Reston GulagSeptember 10, 2009 at 11:07 AM

    I will say that the amount of helicopter traffic on weekend evenings over the gulag has decreased markedly. If it's because they've removed or forced out some of the malcontents, then I applaud them. If, on the other hand, it's because they don't have enough money in the county budget to keep up aerial operations on weekend evenings, well, that's not so good.

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