Atlanta mayor, police chief release new crime reduction stats

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Mayor Andre Dickens and other city leaders held a news conference Monday to detail how they are keeping the public safe.

Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum and other city officials joined Mayor Dickens to discuss progress in Atlanta’s One Safe City plan.

“When I took office, our top priority as I stated, was to make Atlanta the safest large metropolitan city in America and we are well on that path. We’re making significant improvements in all categories of safety,” Mayor Dickens said.

The mayor said 911 dispatchers cut their answer time in half in 2024, ensuring that help arrives faster.

“One Safe City is about responding to emergencies, but it is also about prevention and preparedness, and building the city that we love, is where residents feel secure in their homes, on their streets, at their nightlife, and in their parks, and in their community,” Dickens said. “Training plays a role in that, which is I’m happy that we have finished construction on the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center and are now moving in, so that firefighters, police officers, and EMS can be prepared to even be better at servicing our public.”

Chief Schierbaum said they saw a reduction in crimes against people for the second year in a row, adding that overall, crime is down five percent over the previous year.

He also said there was an eight percent reduction in crimes against people and a five percent reduction in property crimes.

Officials said the number one area of reduced crime in the City last year was vehicle thefts. They were 20 percent down over the previous year.

Schierbaum also said robberies were down 15 percent from the previous year, but a 28 percent reduction from 2022.

He also said the number of people shot was down seven percent, but a 19 percent reduction since 2022.

Schierbaum said an area they are really proud of is the reduction of homicides for the second year in a row. Homicides reduced this last year by eight percent, but a 26 percent reduction of people losing their lives since 2022.

Schierbaum said that last year law enforcement and partners removed 3,137 firearms from the streets of Atlanta — many of them being possessed by felons and gang members.

“Every five days the Atlanta Police Department shut down a drug dealing operation in the city — 73 separate drug dealing operations were shut down, ticking time bombs in neighbors of this city that if they were not shut down gun violence would’ve presented itself,” Schierbaum said.

Atlanta News First attended last year’s crime reduction meeting where officials spoke about violent crime being down.

“When everyone says that Atlanta is on fire and everything is crazy and it’s crime-ridden, then that becomes a reality. How a man thinketh, that’s how it becomes. And so, what we want to do is to make sure you know the true stats. The true facts,” Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said during the 2024 crime reduction meeting.