Crime rates in Atlanta today are as low as they were in 1969, thanks in part to a police force that is backed by the business community through the Atlanta Police Foundation.
Established in 2003 to provide support to the mayor, chief of police and the Atlanta Police Department, the foundation works to secure resources to fund high priority projects that enhance the city’s ability to prevent and fight crime.
After ranking among the top five highest violent crime cities for most of the previous three decades, in 2009 Atlanta ranked 31st, according to Policing.
The foundation’s programs include:
- Research into best practices in law enforcement operations, state-of-the-art law enforcement technologies, smart policing techniques, and best-in-class training.
- Operation Shield, a canopy of more than 10,000 integrated surveillance cameras and license plate readers monitored 27/7 by Atlanta Police Department’s Video Integration Center.
- At-Promise Youth Center, which addresses juvenile crime, and has yielded just a two percent recidivism rate among enrollees vs a 65 percent rate nationally.
- The Atlanta Police Leadership Institute, which, in cooperation with Georgia State University, provides mid-career management training for sworn officers.
- Secured Neighborhoods, which provides affordable housing, so officers can live in the city.
- Smart Policing initiatives such as ShotSpotter, which assists police officers with real time listening and monitoring of firearm activity.
- Crime Stoppers, which rewards tipsters whose information to police departments across the metro area leads to the arrests of criminal suspects
Today Atlanta is served by a police force that many regard as the pre-eminent police department in the southeast. It has helped create a thriving business climate and attracted the nation’s third largest concentration of Fortune 500 companies.
“A critical factor in the success of the Atlanta Police Department’s mission to reduce crime is the support and collaboration we receive from our elected leadership, the business community and the Atlanta Police Foundation,” said Police Chief Erika Shields.
“Atlanta is flourishing because of the unwavering commitment and investment the city, businesses and residents have made to make public safety a priority,” she adds.
“The foundation works to secure and leverage private resources to fund high priority projects designed to enhance the City of Atlanta’s ability to fight and prevent crime, including adding officers on the streets, and engaging Atlanta’s business community, neighborhoods and residents in fighting crime,” adds Foundation CEO Dave Wilkinson, who is retired from the U. S. Secret Service, where he served as Special Agent in charge of the Georgia Region.
The city says it has experienced a 58 percent reduction in the violent crime rate and a 41 percent reduction in crimes overall. And Atlanta, which at one time was ranked the second most violent city in America, is now ranked twenty-fifth. However, a big negative remains the city’s murder rate. It spiked to a 10-year high in 2016 and has seen increases over the past several years dating back to 2013, according to numbers from the FBI.
