Crime In East Atlanta Area On The Decline

Crime in Zone 6, the Atlanta Police Department's law enforcement region that includes East Atlanta, Grant Park, Edgewood and East Lake, is down year-to-date, an Atlanta police official said.

Speaking to members of the East Atlanta Community Association at the neighborhood's March meeting Tuesday night, Maj. Keith Meadows, Zone 6 commander, said overall crime in the zone fell more than 5 percent.

Zone 6 was one of three of APD's six zones to record a drop so far in 2012. Zone 6 also had the biggest percentage drop overall of the six APD zones.

There's been some controversy regarding APD's crime stats in terms of how they compare to last year's figures because the department reconfigured its zone boundaries to equalize workloads and reduce response times.

Here's how the three zones that cover the East Atlanta Patch neighborhoods bear out so far in terms of individual crime statistics. The figures are through March 3.

Includes: Inman Park, Grant Park, East Atlanta, Kirkwood and East Lake

36

DOWN 2.70%

116

UP 19.59%

171

DOWN 4.47%

19

UP 35.71%

78

DOWN 28.44%

44

DOWN 16.98%

254

DOWN 0.39%

28

DOWN 24.32%

84

UP 12.00%

218

DOWN 3.54%

21

DOWN 19.23%

11

DOWN 69.44%

35

UP 2.94%

414

Up 8.95%

94

UP 18.99%

150

DOWN 12.79%

197

Up 30.46%

23

DOWN 30.30%

209

UNCHANGED

62

DOWN 11.43%

102

DOWN 31.54%

Meadows also gave residents un update on the Zone 6 vacant property database he started since taking over the zone last month.

The database, which has 125 listings so far, is a registry of vacant properties that he's directed officers to check regularly.

"It's important that we maintain a constant presence," he told East Atlanta Patch, because thieves will sometimes use empty properties to stash their stolen goods.

The database comes as housing code enforcement now falls under APD's list of duties. The information gathered on empty properties will be shared with city housing code inspectors who will check for violations, Meadows said.