After the eruption of worldwide protests and the death of Rayshard Brooks, crime rates in Atlanta dropped drastically since police officers are afraid that a routine job can turn into something serious.
What We Know:
- Crime rates have decreased in Atlanta because a lot of police officers are fearing that their routine stops could turn tragic where a life is lost. And as a result, according to WSB-TV, traffic stops are down by nearly 80%.
- “It’s a reflection of the officers’ nervousness or, you know, hesitation to be the next officer that’s put in jail,” Vince Champion of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers said. “When you approach a car, you have absolutely no idea what’s going on.”
- It’s been reported that a few days before Rayshard was murdered, Atlanta police made 709 traffic stops citywide, which is much less than the number of traffic stops made from the same week a year before. And compared to the total arrests citywide last year, they dropped 71%. This could be because of COVID-19.
- “Those officers who would’ve been pulling over the suspicious vehicles, patrolling the neighborhoods, getting out with people at two or three o’clock in the morning wandering in the yards and things like that, so we might be able to do proactive and stop that,” Champion said. “I don’t know that that’s being done as much as it used to.”
- Sources in the Atlanta Police Department have said this fear that the police officers have has caused an “unusual number” of officers to call in sick to protest efforts to impose reforms and for some of the officers to not respond to certain calls in several of the city’s zones.
Despite the number of officers calling in sick, the APD tweeted that they are still able to respond effectively to 911 emergency calls and that no one should hesitate to call if there is an emergency.
