How the Atlanta Police Department reduced violent crime by 21% with data-driven policing

KEY IDEAS:

• The Atlanta Police Department needed granular, real-time data to identify the key drivers of violent crime and support intelligence-led policing strategies.
• Fragmented police data prevents precise crime analysis, leading to broad enforcement strategies that are less effective and can negatively impact entire communities.
• Data integration unifies disparate systems, enabling real-time analysis and helping investigators visualize connections between people, vehicles, groups, and locations.
• Using unified data and precision policing strategies, the Atlanta Police Department reduced violent crime by 21% and homicides by 29% during Operation Heatwave.

💡 ATLANTA POLICE DEPARTMENT (APD) AT A GLANCE:

Location: Atlanta, Georgia

Established: 1873

Population: Approx. 520,070

Sworn count: More than 1,700

Total personnel: More than 2,200

Sources: APD, U.S. Census, Atlanta News First, APD budget

ATLANTA — In the summer of 2023, Atlanta Police Department Chief Darin Schierbaum, alongside Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and other city leaders, announced a major reduction in crime in and around Atlanta following Operation Heatwave, a coordinated effort to uncover:

• Gangs
• Guns
• Drug crime

Crime prevention efforts like Operation Heatwave rely on efficient, real-time data analysis. Effective crime reduction requires identifying:

• Where crime is happening
• Why it’s happening
• Who is driving it

Agencies must be able to identify emerging patterns and uncover the biggest drivers behind violent crime, shifting from general enforcement to precision policing.

During Operation Heatwave, Atlanta PD used data integration to:

• Unify its systems
• Deliver granular, real-time data analysis
• Support data-driven policing strategies

Using Peregrine, analysts were able to drill down into the data and identify key drivers of violent crime. Atlanta’s intelligence-based approach led to significant results:

• Atlanta homicides reduced by 29%
• All crime in Atlanta and Fulton County reduced by 21%

Keep reading to learn how data integration supports real-time decision-making, improves resource allocation, and enables more effective crime prevention strategies.

Why police departments need real-time, granular data to effectively prevent crime

Police departments frequently analyze what crimes are happening, when, and where. However, that information alone won’t reduce violent crime. To be effective, agencies must understand:

• Why are crimes happening where they are, when they are?
• Why are certain crimes occurring more or less than others?
• What individuals and groups drive crime?

At Atlanta Police Department, Maj. Ralph Woolfolk oversees officers in charge of reducing violent crimes like aggravated assaults, car jackings, and robberies, and apprehending the individuals responsible. Woolfolk and his team review crime over seven-, 14-, and 28-day periods to outline the “what, when, and where” of recent crimes.

But to successfully solve and prevent these crimes, Atlanta PD needed granular data to understand the “why.” They needed to uncover the underlying causes to develop an overall crime reduction and prevention strategy like Operation Heatwave.

🔎 WHY IS GRANULAR DATA IMPORTANT FOR CRIME PREVENTION?

• Helps identify specific individuals, groups, or locations associated with violent crime
• Informs targeted crime prevention strategies
• Reduces overpolicing and unintentional impacts on communities

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 toward an entire community, which can exacerbate violence and erode trust.

To reduce violent crime effectively, Atlanta PD needed to move from broad enforcement to precise, intelligence-led interventions focused on specific individuals and networks. This shift toward precision policing requires access to real-time, unified data across systems.

🔑 KEY TAKEAWAY: Without granular data, police agencies risk relying on broad enforcement strategies that reduce effectiveness and erode community trust.

How data integration and real-time analysis support intelligence-led prevention strategies

To mitigate and prevent violent crimes, Atlanta PD needed to shift from general enforcement to data-driven precision. Data integration makes that possible.

Operation Heatwave “depends heavily on effective technology,” Woolfolk said. Data integration helps Atlanta PD make full use of its existing systems, unifying data and reducing noise to reveal actionable intelligence.

Atlanta PD implemented Peregrine to unify its disparate data sources, providing a centralized hub that simplifies real-time data analysis. Using Peregrine, analysts can:

• Reduce information overload
• Search across all data sources at once
• Automate dynamic reports
• Easily create data visualizations that update in real time
• Map 911 call and crime statistics
• Drill down on a block-by-block level to identify trends

💡 HOW DOES DATA INTEGRATION HELP REDUCE VIOLENT CRIME?

• Unifies data across police systems
• Enables real-time analysis of crime patterns
• Reveals connections between people, places, and events
• Supports targeted, intelligence-led interventions

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

With Peregrine, Atlanta PD can unify data across systems and analyze it in real time, allowing investigators to move beyond surface-level trends and identify the individuals, groups, and locations driving violent crime.

🔑 KEY TAKEAWAY: Data integration enables law enforcement to move from reactive reporting to proactive, intelligence-led policing.

How Atlanta PD uses real-time data to target drivers of violent crime

With real-time, unified data, Atlanta PD can take a more precise, intelligence-led approach to crime prevention. Real-time analysis enables personnel to identify trends, networks, and unseen connections, then allocate resources most effectively.

💡 AT A GLANCE: HOW ATLANTA PD REDUCED VIOLENT CRIME WITH INTEGRATED DATA

• Identified high-risk individuals, groups, and locations driving violent crime
• Analyzed connections between people, vehicles, and locations to stay ahead of crime
• Leveraged actionable insights to inform targeted enforcement strategies.

Identify key drivers of violent crime

Atlanta PD uses specific, real-time data to protect its community. Peregrine helps its team drill down to identify underlying patterns.

“We are looking at the data, and analyzing key locations that show relationships to gang activity,” Woolfolk said. “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.”

READ MORE → Modernizing Focused Deterrence Programs

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.”

Map relationships between people, vehicles, and locations

Jordan Compton, an Intelligence Analyst at Atlanta PD, expanded on 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.”

🔎 WHAT DOES ‘INTELLIGENCE-LED POLICING’ MEAN?

• Using real-time data to guide enforcement strategies
• Allocating resources based on data, not assumptions
• Prioritizing individuals, groups, and locations driving crime

Use real-time insights to guide operational decisions

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.”

READ MORE → Data-Driven Decision-Making in Law Enforcement

🔑 KEY TAKEAWAY: Real-time, granular data allows agencies to target the drivers of crime, reducing violence without overpolicing entire communities.

How Atlanta PD reduced violent crime by 21% with data-driven policing

By combining data integration with a precision, intelligence-led policing strategy, the Atlanta Police Department saw a violent crime reduction of over 20% across the city.

Fox 5 reported District Attorney Fani 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%.”

📖 RESULTS OF ATLANTA PD’S OPERATION HEATWAVE:

• 29% reduction in homicides
• 21% reduction in total crime across Atlanta and Fulton County

Atlanta PD was able to reduce violent crime by identifying key drivers of violent crime, mapping relationships across networks, and acting on real-time intelligence.

“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,” Chief Darin Schierbaum said at the Operation Heatwave press conference.

These results demonstrate how real-time data integration enables precision policing strategies that reduce crime while minimizing unnecessary enforcement.

🔑 KEY TAKEAWAY: Atlanta PD reduced violent crime through real-time crime analysis, data integration, and intelligence-led policing strategies.

How data-driven policing strategies reduce violent crime

To reduce violent crime, agencies must understand its underlying causes. Without real-time, connected data, departments risk relying on broad enforcement strategies that are less effective and can strain community trust.

By combining data integration with an intelligence-led policing approach, the Atlanta Police Department shifted to a more precise, targeted strategy:

• Identifying key drivers of violent crime
• Mapping relationships across networks
• Acting on real-time insights

As a result, Atlanta PD achieved measurable impact: a 21% reduction in violent crime. This outcome demonstrates how data-driven policing can improve public safety through effective resource allocation. Real-time, unified data helps agencies move beyond reactive policing to proactive strategies.

Peregrine enables agencies to develop data-informed crime prevention strategies by:

• Unifying disconnected data sources
• Surfacing critical insights
• Making connections across systems

To learn how Peregrine can support intelligence-led decision making at your agency, contact us today.

Peregrine is built on AWS GovCloud.