Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and the Atlanta Police Department gathered inside the Thomasville Recreation Center on Monday morning to detail the progress the city’s leaders and its residents have made in reducing overall crime.
“We are here today to shine a light on some of the great work that’s been done by the people whose jobs are in some fashion connected to keeping people safe in the city,” Dickens said.
Dickens was joined by APD Chief Darin Schierbaum and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. LaChandra Burks, the chief operating officer for the City of Atlanta, Gary Davis, the director of Next Level Boys Academy, and Theresa Austin Gibbons, the interim director of the Mayor’s Youth Summer Employment Program, also joined them.
According to APD Chief Darin Schierbaum and the department’s 2024 crime data report, crime in Atlanta decreased by 5%. There was an 8% reduction in crime against persons, which included homicide, rape and aggravated assault, and a 5% reduction in crime against property which included robbery, burglary, motor vehicle theft, theft from motor vehicle, shoplifting, and all other larcenies.
“Last year we lost 44 less people than the year before. That’s 44 less mamas that had to bury their children. We should never lose sight of what these crime reductions mean,” Willis said.
The efforts made by the city to reduce crime fall under Dickens’ One Safe City plan. The plan works with the government, partner organizations, communities, and residents to target gangs, drugs, illegal guns and repeat offenders to ensure the city of Atlanta is safe. These efforts are helped by programs and initiatives such as midnight basketball, nightlife division, investing in 911, community-oriented policing, repeat offender tracking unity, pre-arrest diversion services, and youth employment programs, the latter of which helped Pembrook High School student Madison Brownlee and Morehouse University student Kevin Scott Jr. who were in attendance at the conference.
Gibbons said arrests among the youth decreased by 23% in 2024. Davis shared the sentiment that “all it takes is for someone to care.”
“We cannot prosecute our way to the issues that we have with young men. So at Next Level Boys Academy, we do life skills, social skills, job readiness, professional development, giving these young men opportunities they never had.”
Zone 3 was awarded for being the zone with the largest reduction in crime in 2024. Zone 3 saw a 22% reduction in overall crime, which Major William Ricker, the APD’s commander for the zone, attributed to technology, dedicated officers, and the community’s willingness to “see something, say something.”
“One Safe City is about responding to emergencies, but it is also about prevention and preparedness and building the city that we love where residents feel secure in their homes, on the streets, at their nightlife and in the parks and their community,” Dickens said.