Fairfax County police crackdown on organized retail theft rings
FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. - Fairfax County police have announced a number of arrests and identified other suspects still wanted in connection to multiple high-end and organized retail theft cases.
Police say they have made some breakthroughs in Fairfax County, from a recent arrest of a suspect involved in a robbery at the Chanel store in Tysons Galleria. However, six suspects remain at large.
Chanel store robbery suspect arrested, 6 suspects remain at large
Fairfax County police have arrested a suspect involved in a Chanel store robbery at Tysons Galleria. Six suspects remain at large.
FOX 5's Bob Barnard spoke with Deputy Chief Gregory Fried of Fairfax County Police Department on the recent strides forward.
"They’ve been stealing also from high-end retail stores, and we call them the AirPod crew because they come in, and they work in conjunction with each other using AirPods to communicate with each other to try to disguise what they’re doing. In the county, they’ve stolen from multiple high-end retail stores and have stolen over $35,000 worth of merchandise."
With a number of retail theft rings taking place in the county, officials are asking for consequences that match the seriousness of the crime at hand.
"I think we have to make sure that the criminal justice consequences match the seriousness associated with law enforcement responses to this growing trend. I think often times, law enforcement will enhance our response to an emerging trend or pattern and the rest of the criminal justice is just naturally catching up with it. What I’m saying is it's now time to catch up with it. We can’t be handing out low bonds to these folks who are serial bad guys and impacting the community. And we have to attach some consequences at sentencing," said Chief Kevin Davis of Fairfax County Police Department.
Fairfax County police say in 2022, 58,000 thefts were reported and last year police were able to make arrests in 70% of the county's retail theft cases.