Police chief tells Atlanta City Council crime is down

ATLANTA - Atlanta's top cop says anti-crime efforts have slowed the pace of violent acts.

"In May, we saw homicides surge," Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum told Atlanta City Council members. "It was really concerning."

The chief reviewed a full year of data and gave a glimpse into what has been happening so far in 2023.

"Wherever there is drug activity," he added, "it is a ticking time bomb for violence."

One area that got extra resources and a new strategy was interrupting drug sales.

They do not happen only in low income neighborhoods but in some of the most prosperous Atlanta communities.

The chief said the strategies worked. For all of 2022, investigators confiscated narcotics with a street value of several million.

More important, in the chief's view, are the weapons taken from drug houses.

Locking up repeat violent offenders helped turnaround the violent trend.

The chief told a recent meeting of the council public safety panel the efforts have helped contribute to a 2023 decline in homicides nearly by half compared to the same period last year.

Even with the improvement in reducing violent acts, Schierbaum knows that in many communities, a car crime or burglary can be a more common and immediate threat.

The property crime numbers are not where APD wants to see them -- bumping up marginally by about one percent.