“It’s an understatement to say that this has been a challenging year,” the mayor said.
Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms addressed the city’s sharp rise in crime during her virtual State of the City Address Wednesday, calling it a “COVID crime wave.”
To help combat crime, Bottoms said the city plans to hire 250 more police officers during the next fiscal year, promising better training facilities and bonuses to keep officers from leaving. She announced new de-escalation tactics to help prevent the kind of officer-involved shootings that prompted social unrest in Atlanta in 2020, in addition to hazardous duty pay for officers.
“Too many innocent people are losing their lives, including our children to senseless gun violence,” Bottoms said. “These are the kinds of crimes that APD is working to stop by partnering with the FBI, the GBI, and with local partners to investigate, arrest, and convict those responsible for the shootings that have occurred in our city.”
Other announcements aimed at combatting crime include a $3 million dollar commitment to add 250 cameras to the city’s network of 1500 current cameras through a public-private partnership.
A portion of the city’s American Rescue Plan funds will support a $5 million commitment to expand Atlanta’s Cure Violence Initiative. Bottoms said many of the gun crimes occur between people who know each other, hence the need for programs that stop people from picking up weapons to resolve simple problems.
Bottoms said the Cure Violence program’s three-pronged approach will accomplish this through interrupting retaliatory balance, conflict resolution, and changing community norms toward a culture of nonviolence. The mayor said the national program has seen success in other major cities, and has shown success through a pilot program in southeast Atlanta.
She also touted her response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the addition of more affordable housing, such as the Herndon Square development that the Atlanta Housing Authority broke ground on last year. The multi-phase development will include nearly 100 affordable units for seniors, set to open in just a few weeks.
The mayor also called on companies and businesses, large and small, to help the city reach its goal of offering at least 1000 young adults age 18 to 24 jobs to prevent them from being “water boys” at intersections. Over the next several weeks, she said the city will share more information on how to apply and how businesses can help.
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