ATLANTA - Atlanta Police said their fight against crime is paying off in some of the city’s most popular areas.
According to Major Scott Kreher, Zone 5 in 2016 saw an 11-percent reduction in crime. Zone 5 is primarily made up of Midtown and Downtown Atlanta.
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“The biggest category was robberies,” said Atlanta Police Major Scott Kreher. “Armed robberies, pedestrian robberies, those were where we saw the double digit decreases in 2016.”
Major Kreher said these areas had the largest crime reduction in the city.
In 2015, Midtown residents held several meetings, frustrated at the spike in crime in their neighborhoods and demanded change. Major Kreher said crime went down in Midtown 40 percent in 2016.
Major Kreher credits additional resources, more visibility during peak hours and the residents and business owners who the major said are vital, with the change in crime.
“It's a team effort, APD cannot do it by themselves, the neighborhood needs us, we need them,” said Major Kreher.
Despite lower crime rates, it’s about perception. Major Kreher said even if they have just one crime incident, it still significant.
Moving forward he said the precincts are taking a different approach to hopefully keep those crime numbers going down.
“We really have to stop using a machete, now we are using a scalpel so we are really looking at the intelligence that is provided by many other departments and units outside of Zone 5 to help us address specific crime patterns and specific repeat offenders that we know that are going to continue to commit those kinds of crime,” said Major Kreher.
Major Kreher said they are continuing to see a decrease in crime in 2017 when compared to 2016 and believe they have targeted the right locations and have the resources in place to make sure crime statistics keeps going down.
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