Arlington sees an increase in pedestrian accidents, according to police chief

Drivers running red lights and speeding across Arlington roadways are a major concern for residents according to a city survey. The issue of street safety has been a top priority for city leaders and police as they try to reduce accidents.

"At the police department we share the community and your sentiment about making sure our streets are safe, there’s no doubt about it," said Arlington Police Chief Al Jones as he addressed the city council Tuesday afternoon during a work session.

He presented data from the first seven months of the year showing the number of fatal crashes and accidents.

"We’ve seen a reduction in accidents across the city, we’ve seen a reduction of accidents at intersections, we’ve seen a reduction with fatalities, the only area that we’re still seeing an increase in pedestrian accidents," said Jones.

According to the city report, there were 23 fatality crashes in Arlington between January and July, a 15% decrease compared to the same time last year. Pedestrians made up 35% of the fatalities, and 17% were on a motorcycle.

Jones said officers are going out trying to educate pedestrians on how to get across streets safely.

Overall, according to the city, there was a 12% decrease in crashes involving injuries, which was 1,419. When it came to intersection crashes, there were 811, an 11% decrease compared to the previous year.

The chief said his goal is to make sure his officers have a presence in the community to see that they are out making traffic stops to help curb some of these issues.

"I can tell you that we  have been working on increasing our traffic stops around the city," said Jones

Talk of traffic enforcement became a topic after a recent city staff presentation which showed data indicating the city's revenue from citations had been declining over the past few years.

At last week's meeting, a council member said officers needed to write more citations. At Tuesday's work session, Council Member Andrew Piel expressed his support of the police department while still expressing his concerns regarding past statistics.

Chief Jones shared data that showed they have increased patrols in the past seven months compared to this time last year.

"That’s been the goal for me, is making sure we are out there visible so our community can see that we’re out there trying to make traffic stops across the city," said Jones.

In the last seven months, Arlington Police conducted 44,067 traffic stops, about 6,304 per month according to the city. Of those traffic stops, 37% resulted in one or more citations, according to the report.

It goes on to state that traffic stops increased by 10% compared to 2023, the amount of traffic stops with one more citation increased by 18% and the enforcement ratio went up from 34% to 37%.

Piel thanked the chief for the increased enforcement.

Jones told the council that he wants his officers to use their own discretion when making traffic stops and he's not telling them what the outcome should be because he said, "Not everybody deserves a citation."

He said they're really working on education and changing behaviors regarding drivers and pedestrians to help keep roadways safe.