While the Atlanta Police Department recorded a drop last month in the crimes reported to the FBI, APD also recorded a drop in the number of those cases closed with arrests.
According to the August Uniform Crime Report, APD also has recovered fewer stolen cars.
“While our clearance-by-arrest numbers are not as high in certain crime categories as we’d like, we don’t believe it’s a systemic issue or persistent problem,” APD spokesman Carlos Campos said Monday. “Arrest numbers have a natural ebb and flow; some crimes are easily solvable, while some are complex and take longer to bring a perpetrator to justice.”
Police agencies report monthly to the FBI the number of murders, rapes, robberies, burglaries, larcenies and auto thefts along with the number of stolen autos recovered and the numbers of arrests for those specific crimes.
Last month, there were fewer murders, home burglaries, auto thefts and larcenies valued at, at least $50 than the numbers recorded in August 2013. At the same time, there were more rapes, aggravated assaults, robberies, non-residence burglaries and larcenies of less than $50.
The trend was slightly different when the first eight months of the years were combined.
So far this year, murders, rapes and non-residence burglaries are up. The number of aggravated assaults in the first eight months of this year and last were the same — 2,020 each. Drops were reported for robberies, home burglaries, larcenies and auto thefts.
Last month, APD cleared 471 crimes in the categories that are reported while that number totaled 507 in August 2013. In comparison, there were 2,752 new cases last month for those specific crimes and 2,858 in August last year.
So for this year, APD has closed 3,988 cases in the reported categories. That number was 4,251 by this time last year.
Police recovered 83 stolen autos last month and 788 so far this year. But last year, APD recovered 119 stolen autos in August and a total of 1,326 in the first eight months of 2013.
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