January 2008

Downtown Crime Rate Continues Drop, Again.

If you are tracking how Downtown Atlanta is doing these days, you’d have to say the numbers are up and down, and that’s great news according to A.J. Robinson, President of Central Atlanta Progress (CAP) and the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District (ADID).

“We just announced that our 2007 office space absorption numbers have swung upwards to a positive 640,000 square feet from a negative quarter of a million minus in 2006. Now on the heels of that, our most recent crime figures take another deep dip, so up and down on these two barometers is incredible for Downtown,” said Robinson.

According to Robinson, the recent crime report (2nd six month 2007), issued every six months by CAP and the Atlanta Police Department (APD) since late 2003, continued to show great improvement. “Two years ago, Downtown proper represented 9% of the City’s overall crime. Today, we’re below 5% and still have almost half the daily population of the entire City,” said Robinson.

“For years, Downtown’s major crime category has been larceny from cars. When you have 95,000 parking spaces it adds to the criminal temptation if a computer or phone is left in plain view. In last year’s reporting (2006), over 70% of our total crime was larceny from cars. Now it’s dropped to 66%, and we’re keeping the pressure on through the efforts of the police, Ambassador Force®, private security entities, and with the growing number of our surveillance cameras,” said Robinson.

Robinson went on to say that APD has re-affirmed that Downtown’s outcomes are the direct reverse of the up-tick they see in crime in other neighborhoods.

“In the last report, we saw another overall drop (25%) from the second six months of 2006. It’s been low and getting even lower, and there’s a reason. In Downtown we have more certified law enforcement (over 400 in the aggregate between the eight jurisdictional agencies), more private security (over 3,000), and more eyes and ears watching and listening than any place in this City. It’s paying off big time and the numbers back it up. Today, Downtown Atlanta could possibly be the safest neighborhood in the City.”