Atlanta Crime Rates in Historical Perspective (2009-2021)

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By Moshe Haspel

According to the latest Metro Atlanta Speaks survey, concerns about crime eclipsed all others (including the perennial favorite of transportation) with 32.3% of respondents naming crime as the biggest problem facing the region. These concerns were prominent enough that both candidates in the Atlanta mayoral runoff– not to mention most of the candidates in the rest of the field– made addressing crime a signature issue in their campaigns.

Because the Atlanta Police Department has made incident-level crime data publicly available since 2009, we are able to take a closer look at trends for the city over the last 13 years. Their downloadable COBRA dataset allows us to examine three types of violent crime (homicide, aggravated assault, and robbery) and three types of property crime (burglary, larceny, and auto theft).

Spoiler alert: despite perceptions to the contrary, crime in Atlanta is at or near historic lows in most categories, though there is one important exception.