Calls for service to the Manassas City Police Department (MCPD) have decreased in recent months as traffic stops and enforcement citations have increased in 2025, a recent presentation to City Council shows.
Chief of Police Douglas Keen presented crime data for the city from January to June 2025 in an effort to “push back and fight incorrect information” from social media, he said.
Calls for service — an incident MCPD responds to or handles — have decreased in comparison to the same times in 2024, and have decreased month to month in 2025. June 2025 had the least number of calls at 4,967 (5,344 in June 2024), while January 2025 had the record high at 6,584 (5,969 in January 2024). Overall, calls for service have decreased by 6% in 2025.
Keen said he hears most about traffic enforcement and issues with speeding across the city. Crime data from MCPD shows traffic stops and enforcement have increased by 15% and 13% in 2025, respectively.
“We try to listen to our community about where they want our resources to be. As you can clearly see, we heard our community. We’ve put a little bit of effort into doing more traffic enforcement, [which] makes those calls for service go down slightly, but as you can see, it trends the traffic enforcement up,” Keen said. “… We couldn’t have enough officers and enough time to do traffic enforcement at the rate that our community has asked for it.”
MCPD has issued 3,269 traffic citations in 2025 so far, with the most common reason being failing to obey a stop sign, followed by expired registration and failure to obey a highway sign.
Keen noted some Part I offenses, which include murder, forcible rape, robbery, larceny and aggravated assault, have increased since 2024. MCPD has seen a 47% increase in burglaries in 2025 — 19 in 2024 to 28 in 2025 so far — with a 21% increase in auto theft.
MCPD has also seen a dramatic decrease in other Part I offenses this year. There’s been a 100% decrease in forcible rapes in 2025 — a decrease from six in 2024 — along with a 72% decrease in aggravated assaults, from 18 in 2024 to five in 2025 so far.
“This, to me and the police department, is good news, but I also want to point out we’re only half a year [in]. Lots of things can change. As an example, in years past, shortly after giving a presentation, we could have a night of grand larceny where they go through and maybe hit 20 cars,” Keen said.
The police chief also pointed to what the city calls “quality of life” offenses, which include domestic violence, mental health-related calls and overdoses.
“These are some of those events that may normally not be found on a crime report from other jurisdictions, but here in the City of Manassas, we believe these events impact families and individuals every day, everything from the children attending schools to those adults living in the household,” Keen said.
MCPD has seen a 76% increase in domestic violence arrests, with only 43 in 2024 and 76 in 2025 thus far. There’s also been a 12% increase in violent domestic reports, with a 16% decrease in non-violent domestic reports.
Keen noted there is a 66% increase in overdoses in 2025 — an increase from nine in 2024 to 15 in 2025.
“While we did have a 66% increase, … the good number there, knock on wood, is the number of fatal overdoses [zero]. For us, putting Narcan out in the community through our fire department also helps with saving lives with those fatal overdoses,” he said.
MCPD has reported an overall 9% decrease in mental health-related calls. Mental health report calls have decreased by 65% in 2025 so far, while “mental subject” calls increased by 361% in 2025, increasing from 13 in 2024 to 60 in 2025.
“Sgt. [Shauna] Moller specifically reads every mental health report, makes that connection to both social services so that if we have an individual that is in need, whether that’s from addiction or mental health or in some cases, both of those, she helps them get the services they need so we can get them to a better spot in their life, which, at the end of the day, helps everyone in the City of Manassas,” Keen said.
Keen emphasized that MCPD works to keep Manassas safe, and residents can reach out to him with questions or concerns.
“I hope the information helps you and our residents understand that the things they hear about, the things they see sometimes on social media, are not accurate,” Keen noted. “… The City of Manassas is actually a very safe community, and its police department works with the residents to ensure we are doing the kind of enforcement activities that they desire.”
