Atlanta Police Department: A 21% reduction in violent crime

“Peregrine has been integral to reducing violent crime, helping us connect and leverage the data we have to achieve our ‘gangs, drugs, and guns’ mission.”

Maj. Ralph Woolfolk

Atlanta PD, Georgia

• Peregrine was integral to Operation Heatwave, a summer 2023 initiative from Atlanta Police Department and city leadership to reduce violent crime by over 20%.
• Peregrine helps leadership and investigators drill down into data, identifying the drivers of crime.
• The platform’s inherent flexibility “feels more creative,” enabling law enforcement to solve problems unique to their agency.

A 21% reduction in violent crime

In the summer of 2023, the Atlanta Police Department’s Chief, Darin Schierbaum, along with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and other city leaders, announced a major reduction in crime in and around Atlanta thanks to Operation Heatwave, a coordinated effort to uncover gangs, guns, and drug crime.

Fox 5 reported District Attorney Willis’s remarks: “Operation Heatwave 2023 has been a success. Atlanta homicides are down by 29%. All crime in the city and in Fulton County is down 21%.” At the same press conference, Police Chief Schierbaum said, “We’re using data and intelligence to go after the people, and we’re going after the places we know are driving crimes here in Atlanta.”

Major Woolfolk of the Atlanta Police Department oversees officers in charge of reducing violent crimes like aggravated assaults, car jackings, and robberies, and apprehending the individuals responsible. He told us that “Peregrine has been integral to reducing violent crime, helping us connect and leverage the data we have to achieve our ‘gangs, drugs, and guns’ mission.”

Operation Heatwave “depends heavily on effective technology,” Woolfolk continued. “Good technology makes researching and triaging more simple and more effective. We’re an intelligence-led department, and we emphasize precision. Tools like Peregrine support our mission.”

Data-driven, precision policing

Initially, Major Woolfolk and his team start by reviewing crime over seven-, 14-, and 28-day periods that outline what crimes are happening, when, and where.

Peregrine’s role, as Major Woolfolk put it, is to help their team “drill down.” Knowing the ‘what, when, and where’ is obviously crucial to conducting investigations. But the why is just as important – why are crimes happening where they are, when they are? Why are certain crimes occurring more or less than others? Answers to those kinds of questions inform an overall crime reduction and prevention strategy, like Operation Heatwave.

The truth is many citizens that live and work in areas of high violent crime are not involved in criminal activity and are often victims of violent crime. Absent specific real-time data on the drivers of crime, violence prevention efforts can be geared towards an entire community, which can exacerbate violence and erode trust.

The Atlanta Police Department and Major Woolfolk do have specific, real-time data and they use it to protect their community. “We are looking at the data, and analyzing key locations that show relationships to gang activity,” Major Woolfolk continued. “We want to know which conflict groups and which individuals are driving the violent crime trends we identify. Peregrine gives us the ability to make operational and tactical decisions based on data.”

Specific problems, configurable solutions

Jordan Compton, an Intelligence Analyst at the Atlanta Police Department expanded on Major Woolfolk’s point: “As much as we can, we want to stay ahead of crime using simple and effective tools. In Peregrine, it’s easy to drill down into the data, identifying known associates of gang members along with vehicles and addresses associated with individuals suspected of being involved in violent crimes.”

It’s easy to go deep into the data, Compton says, because Peregrine’s platform “makes my research easier; the platform feels more customizable, more creative, less restrictive.” She continued: “Peregrine integrates our data into one place, and that helps us make connections we might not think about. Sometimes when I am researching a location and a vehicle is associated with that place, that makes me think to check ALPR scans. And I can access all that information in Peregrine.”

Peregrine’s data model and heuristics are designed to be flexible to solve problems unique to each agency’s operational context. You can read more about Peregrine’s underlying technology here.

The results speak for themselves: The Atlanta Police Department implemented a data-driven, precise policing strategy and reduced violent crime by more than 20%.

Peregrine can do the same for your department. Reduce violent crime today.

Peregrine is built on AWS GovCloud.