Auto crimes equal to almost half of Atlanta crimes

ATLANTA — Channel 2 has reported on a lot of violent crime in 2022, but Atlanta police said while that’s the most serious type of crime, it’s not the majority of crime in the city.

Almost half of all Atlanta’s crime is actually related to your car. “To be honest, it’s the major crime, that drives crime in Atlanta,” said police Captain Antonio Clay.

Clay is talking about auto crimes. He’s the assistant zone commander for Zone 5, which covers Downtown and Midtown areas, “We have had over 500 vehicles stolen, and 52% of those, the keys were left running.”

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Clay said those alarming statistics cover Zone 5 from January 2022-July 2022.

Channel 2′s Larry Spruill obtained the numbers from APD. When it comes to car break-ins citywide, that’s about 36.86% of all crime in Atlanta.

The number of carjackings in Atlanta is 13.02%.

Clay said those numbers are higher in his zone of Downtown and Midtown.

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For suspects breaking into cars in Zone 5, that number is 50.94% and for thieves stealing cars, also in Zone 5, that’s 13.21%.

Clay said it gets worse. “As far as vehicles break-ins, we had over 1,000 guns stolen from vehicles, throughout the city of Atlanta. You see our perpetrators use these vehicles to commit other crimes,” said Clay.

Clay said they have made several arrests in these cases, but they’re noticing a trend of drivers making things easier by leaving their cars unlocked.

“The Atlanta Police Department will do everything, to keep the community safe. But we can’t do it alone. It takes a village,” said Clay.

He’s asking people to always lock their doors, not leave their cars running and to remove valuables from their cars.

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