By the numbers: Metro Atlanta homicides declining, mirroring national trend
The numbers are in: Fewer Americans killed each other in 2025.
Homicides dropped 21% nationwide from the previous year in a study conducted by the Council on Criminal Justice that tracked 35 major cities, including Atlanta. The city’s police department investigated 98 homicides in 2025, down from 126 the previous year, or a 32 percent decrease.
Outside of the Atlanta city limits, homicide numbers across the metro area also declined — mostly. A few metro law enforcement agencies experienced an increase, but most were minimal, keeping the numbers down.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution requested data and submitted open records requests to more than 35 police agencies throughout the metro area, and a majority responded. The agencies included large county police and sheriff’s offices, as well as smaller city departments, representing several counties. The AJC also asked for statistics from several other major cities across the state.
Despite the decreased rate, hundreds were still homicide victims last year, including infants.
Metro Atlanta agencies say they are focusing on high-crime areas while also developing community relationships in their efforts to fight the violence. Those efforts appear to be working, though law enforcement officials say more must be done to get crime statistics even lower.
Here are some key findings:
DeKalb police department sees drop
In 2024, the DeKalb County Police Department investigated 129 homicides, even topping Atlanta police. Last year, that number dropped to 91.
The decline came during a year in which the department saw a change of leadership.
In February, DeKalb’s first female police chief, Mirtha Ramos, was relieved of her duties, even though the crime rate was beginning to drop. After serving as interim chief for 10 months, Greg Padrick was named police chief in December. The same month, the department opened its Real Time Crime Center, using technological advances to keep citizens safer.
Gwinnett police solve nearly 100%
In 2025, Gwinnett County police investigated 32 homicides — the same number as the previous year, according to the department.
All but one of those cases has been solved by an arrest, and there are more positive signs: The homicide number is still down from 2023, when there were 40.
“The reason we solve most of our homicides is pretty much the entire unit works as a team,” Cpl. Angela Carter with Gwinnett police told the AJC.
But every homicide is different, and the motives and circumstances vary from case to case, according to investigators. That means it takes a multifaceted approach to decrease violence in communities.
Cobb, Clayton police report increases
The county police departments in both Cobb and Clayton counties saw an increase in homicides in 2025 over the previous year.
But both agencies still had fewer homicides last year than during the pandemic, when departments across the country experienced a dramatic climb.
In Cobb, detectives investigated 21 homicides in 2025, up from 13 the previous year, according to department data. By comparison, the agency investigated 27 homicides in 2021.
Clayton County police investigated 30 homicides last year, up from 20 in 2024, the department reported. In 2022, there were 54 homicides in the jurisdiction.
Zero homicides
A handful of smaller agencies didn’t investigate any homicides in 2025.
Those included the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office and police departments in Decatur, Duluth, Dunwoody, Kennesaw, Milton and Suwanee.
Violence declines, so what’s next?
Ernesto Lopez, senior research specialist for the Council on Criminal Justice, co-authored the recent crime report and said there is no one answer to why violence is on the decline. Instead, a variety of tactics are being used, including technological advancements and community engagement.
“What we’re seeing now is definitely a combination of local factors and wide-scale changes,” Lopez recently told the AJC. “The police cannot be in everyone’s homes. But many cities have identified those that are at the highest risk of violence.”
Experts are divided over how long the decline will continue.
Thaddeus L. Johnson, a senior fellow at the CCJ and an assistant professor of criminal justice and criminology at Georgia State University, expects the national homicide rate to continue dropping, but at a slower pace.
“Nationally, homicide rates are already below mid-2010s levels,” Johnson said at a recent gathering of crime analysts. “The key test is whether progress extends to the highest-risk neighborhoods and emerging non-urban hot spots.”
