17th Street: February Snowstorms Kept Thieves at Home

As noted in yesterday’s post on the U Street corridor, we are doing something new here at Borderstan with crime stats. In the past we reported monthly crime numbers for an area around the 1600 block of 15th Street NW and occasionally for Police Service Areas 208 (Dupont) and 307 (Logan).

Starting this month we are running posts with crime stats for areas that are the centers of three main business and commercial corridors in the Dupont–Logan–U Street area: 12th and U NW; 14th and Q NW; and 17th and Q NW. These are approximately the centers of the U Street, 14th Street and 17th Street commercial corridors.

Why the switch? The area’s commercial strips are centers for neighborhood life–and as a result they can also be crime magnets. All three of the reporting areas listed above will encompass surrounding residential areas as well, as shown in the map above for the U Street corridor. Moreover, all three streets have substantial numbers of residential buildings, too.

Today’s posting is for 17th Street, centered at 17th and Q Streets NW, approximately the center of the commercial strip on 17th Street. The 17th Street Corridor crime reporting area (see map above) covers a circular area that radiates 1,000 feet from 12th and U NW–an area that roughly runs  from 18th Street on the west to 15th Street on the east and from S Street on the north to O Street/Massachusetts Avenue on the south. The area is in Police Service Area (PSA) 208, which covers the Dupont Circle neighborhood.

Summary of February Crime Stats for 17th Street Corridor

• Due to the major snowstorms and severe weather, crime was down throughout DC (See “DC Crime Plummets During Snowpocalypse.”) As with the U Street numbers, this trend was seen on 17th Street (but only for property crimes.) There were 7 total crimes last month compared to 24 in February 2009 and 18 in February 2008. This represents a 71 percent drop from February 2009 to February 2010.
• However, the number of violent crimes did not drop in February of this year due to the snowstorms. In fact, there were four violent crimes in the 17th Street area–3 robberies and 1 assault, none of them with a gun. This compares to 3 violent crimes in February 2009 and 1 in February 2008.
• However, the number of property crimes in the 17th Street area dropped by an astonishing 86% in February 2010 from the previous year. There were only 3 property crimes last month, compared to 21 in February 2009 and 17 in February 2008.
• As for property crimes, the number of thefts from autos (“smash and grabs”) plummeted to 1 in February of this year compared to 13 in February of last year.

17th Street Corridor¹ Crime Stats for February

Crime Type	2008	2009	2010
Homicide	0	0	0
Sex Abuse	0	0	0
Robbery Excluding Gun	1	3	3
Robbery With Gun	0	0	0
Assault with a Dangerous Weapon (ADW) Excluding Gun	0	0	1
Assault with a Dangerous Weapon (ADW) With Gun	0	0	0
Total Violent Crime	1	3	4
Burglary	0	3	0
Theft	5	3	1
Theft From Auto	11	13	1
Stolen Auto	1	2	1
Arson	0	0	0
Total Property Crime	17	21	3
Total Crime	18	24	7

¹ The 17th Street Corridor crime reporting area (see map above) covers a circular area that radiates 1,000 feet from 17th and Q Streets NW–an area that roughly runs  from 18th Street on the west to 15th Street on the east and from S Street on the north to O Street/Massachusetts Avenue on the south. The crime reporting is in Police Service Area (PSA) 208, which is part of MPD’s Second District.